EigenLayer-based Ethereum “restaking” Renzo raises $3.2 million

At a valuation of $25 million

Renzo, an EigenLayer-based Ethereum “restaking” protocol, has raised $3.2 million in a seed funding round at a valuation of $25 million.

The round is led by Maven11 Capital, with participation from investors including Figment Capital, OKX Ventures, SevenX Ventures, and IOSG Ventures. Figment Capital is known as the operation of “Figment validators” on many blockchains.

As part of last month’s mainnet beta release, Renzo enabled users to restake Ether (ETH) via EigenLayer. The protocol will also support Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) in a future release.

1/ Renzo, @eigenlayer Liquid Restaking Hub, is proud to announce a $3.2M seed round led by @Maven11Capital with participation from @FigmentCapital @SevenXVentures @IOSGVC @bodhi_ventures @OKX_Ventures @0xMantleEco @robotventures @Papervc @ProtagonistXYZ @edessacap… pic.twitter.com/5XOuqIve2z

— Renzo (@RenzoProtocol) January 15, 2024

“Restaking” refers to operating and restaking LST (Liquid Staking Token) derived from ETH used for Ethereum staking in order to strengthen the security of other protocols and ecosystems. With the enabling technology, EigenLayer is a representative protocol for Ethereum restaking, with 672,000 ETH (including Liquid ETH) assets deposited.

To use Renzo, users will need to deposit ETH (currently) and LST (in the future) to obtain ezETH (Renzo’s Liquid Restaking Token (LRT)).

Renzo founding contributor Lucas Kozinski told The Block that in comparison to EigenLayer itself, “Lido (a major Ethereum liquid staking company) made ETH staking liquid and made it accessible to everyone. “Renzo, on the other hand, abstracts away the complexity of restaking with EigenLayer.”

Additionally, regarding future plans, we will undergo additional audits of the protocol, increase the bounty of our bug bounty program on the Immunefi platform, integrate with more DeFi protocols, and increase our team size to approximately 10 people through cross-functional hiring. It is planned to expand.

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