Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer has unlocked its native token EIGEN, meaning it would possibly most likely now be traded, transferred and staked.

The token had a bullish debut, trading at $4.32 which corresponds to a fully diluted worth of $7.2 billion, in accordance to knowledge from CoinMarketCap. Around 43% of trading volume took station on the EIGEN/USDT pair on Binance, which listed the token at the time of the unencumber at 5:00 am UTC on Oct. 1.

The unlocking event also manner that developers can create Actively Validated Services and products (AVSs) the employ of EIGEN staking. The protocol plans to introduce programmatic incentives ought to you actively participate and make stronger AVS.

“The final ecosystem plot I noticed had 60+ AVS building on top of Eigenlayer,” acknowledged Aylo, the pseudonymous founding father of Alpha Please, on X.

“I feel the ‘AWS for decentralized services’ will account for a bigger valuation than the pre-market is giving it currently.”

EigenLayer conducted its airdrop in two phases: Season 1 dispensed 113 million EIGEN tokens to restakers, while Season 2 allocated 86 million EIGEN tokens primarily to node operators and stakers who engaged with the protocol.

Activity in EigenLayer peaked in June, when the protocol had simply stricken of $20 billion in Total Value Locked (TVL), in accordance to knowledge from DeFiLlama. Since then, TVL has dropped to around $12 billion.

Whereas the tumble in TVL may perhaps perhaps be attributed in some segment to stakers withdrawing funds after qualifying for an airdrop, the protocol noticed valuable outflows after a controversial file around its airdrop policy.

CoinDesk reported that Eigen Labs, the corporate within the lend a hand of EigenLayer, circulated a listing of its workers’ pockets addresses to ecosystem projects that were making ready to airdrop tokens.

EigenLayer addressed the claims in a blog submit, saying the protocol had “no files or proof of any worker at Eigen Labs pressuring any group of workers to unduly lend a hand.”