Eigen Foundation announces Season 2 Stakedrop

Eigen Foundation announced its second reward distribution following the Season 2 point farming session. Season 2 Stakedrop will award EIGEN tokens for engaging with builders in the Eigen ecosystem.

Eigen Foundation announced its long-awaited second round of reward distribution, also known as Stakedrop. The event will reward all participants who staked during Season 2. Stakers, projects, and protocol users will gain access to a claims page.

The claims for Eigen-based activity will reward several classes of users, including the community. The claims page will open on or before September 17. The data for the airdrop will be based on a snapshot of staking from August 15.

1/ We’re excited to announce the EIGEN Season 2 Stakedrop in preparation for unlock!

Season 2 will recognize key contributors and participants across the ecosystem:

☑️ Stakers & Operators
☑️ Ecosystem Partners
☑️ Community

Claims go live on or before September 17, 2024.

More… pic.twitter.com/sC2t3fPy8I

— Eigen Foundation (@eigenfoundation) September 4, 2024

The rewards will be calculated based on staked Ethereum (ETH) for a duration of time, as well as EIGEN staking. Additional rewards will go to a list of partners, as well as the wider Eigenlayer community.

The community Stakedrop will be the most complex, and will include any activities of outreach and popularization, including social media. Eligible community members and influencers must prove activity from before April 1, 2024. The Eigen Foundation will distribute 70M EIGEN during the event, mostly rewarding activities from Q1, 2024. The planned Stakedrop will make up 4.2% of EIGEN’s fully diluted supply of an estimated 1.66B tokens.

The biggest share of the rewards, around 58M EIGEN, will go to ETH stakers, and will be based on the length of their staking period.

Eigen Foundation will add another 100 EIGEN as a compensation for relatively high gas prices during Season 2 staking. Most of the staking for that season happened between March 15 and April 29. The Eigen Foundation retroactively announced the additional reward, to avoid the creation of Sybill wallets.

Following the Stakedrop event, the Eigen Foundation will start a new staking incentive program, to be announced later. Eigen Layer aims to retain its stakers and boost the participation of projects and operators.

EIGEN token still in pre-market price discovery

Eigen Foundation has yet to release the EIGEN token for trading, though it often mentions a September deadline. The EIGEN token is only available in pre-launch trading, speculating on the possible launch price. Fake or copycat tokens are also trying to appear legitimate.

Predictions for the EIGEN launch continue to create hype, as the current pre-market levels do not even have a unified price but vary wildly between exchanges. Predictions for the proper EIGEN launch see the token rally as high as $5.

Eigen Foundation is still working on the exact features of the EIGEN token, and will push some of the updates to the main net, planned for September 30. However, this will not guarantee the EIGEN token will be immediately transferable. Transferability may be a matter of a longer wait, or a community vote.

Transferability may be delayed, turning EIGEN into an asset for the internal ecosystem. Without it, Eigen Foundation risks rapid selling and unfavorable pricing conditions.

EIGEN tokens may be additionally staked, as a way to secure the network. There is still no exact supply or a way to distribute tokens, though ecosystem participants can calculate their share of the supply.

During previous point farming seasons, users have generated more than 256B Eigen Points, which will then be converted to tokens. In the coming weeks, Eigen Foundation will also announce its rewards for testnet contributors who spent time on the protocol but have not received a share of points.

EigenLayer brings activity to liquid staking tokens

EIGEN is one of the more complex airdrops, following multiple projects with relatively easy tasks. The process for EIGEN tokens is more involved, and some users have complained about the expenses and gas fees incurred. By the time Eigen was ready with its point farming, questions of sustainability and the need to avoid a market crash were already exposed by other airdrop projects.

Eigen Layer locks in $11.4B in value, down from $22B during peak staking periods. Eigen Layer also continues to draw in 32 ETH deposits, moving them through EigenPod addresses and into the Beacon Chain for long-term staking.

Known EigenLayer wallets also contain various forms of liquid staking ETH from other protocols, valued at more than $3B. EigenLayer has already wrapped up 440 days of staking while interacting with top liquid staking protocols like Lido and RocketPool.

EigenLayer also hosts an ecosystem of projects with a market cap above $46B, spearheaded by Pendle and EtherFi. Through Pendle, users can also receive yield for their staked ETH, as well as for holding sUSDe, the stablecoin of Ethena protocol. EigenLayer thus offers a tool to stake ETH securely in a smart contract, while tapping its economic value in a secluded ecosystem based on liquid staking tokens.

Cryptopolitan reporting by Hristina Vasileva

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