Omni Network Signs $600M Agreement with Ether.Fi

Ether.Fi’s acquired $600 million worth of Ether from Omni Network to enhance the security of both the Omni Network and EigenLayer.

The restaking protocol, Ether. Fi has contracted with Omni Network to acquire $600 million worth of Ether. Ether.Fi will utilize this Ether to enhance the security of both the Omni Network and EigenLayer.

“Omni is proud to announce a commitment of $600M of staked ETH from @ether_fi to secure the Omni Network. This first-of-its-kind deal positions us at the forefront of the growing restaking ecosystem.”

As stated in an article published by Omni Network on March 4, the $600 million will be utilized to protect both the Omni testnet and the mainnet.

What Is Omni Network

Omni Network is a layer-1 interoperability blockchain that aims to deliver lower latency and alleviate ecosystem fragmentation. It accomplishes this by securely connecting Ethereum rollups via restaking.

Ether worth $600 million is equivalent to almost 33 percent of the total amount of Ether. Ether.Fi has a total value locked (TVL) of $1.88 billion.

The DefiLlama data indicates that Ether.Fi is currently the largest liquid restaking protocol in the world. This is because its TVL increased by more than 163% over the previous month.

EigenLayer, the largest Ethereum restaking protocol with over $10.3 billion in TVL, will restake the Ether, valued at $600 million. The announcement of the new strategic alliance comes nearly two weeks after the venture capital company Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) announced that EigenLayer would be receiving a fundraising round of $100 million.

Additionally, in March, the protocol successfully concluded a funding round sponsored by Blockchain Capital, which totaled $50 million dollars. EigenLayer established in 2021 provides validators and stakers the ability to generate liquid-staking derivative tokens like Lido Staked Ether and RocketPool’s rETH to securely validate other networks.

These assets can generate further revenue by being utilized in several other decentralized financial protocols. Restaking protocols are now in sixth place on DefiLlama, with a total value of $10.305 billion.

Liquid staking is currently the largest protocol category on DefiLlama, with a combined TVL of $54.7 billion. Only EigenLayer’s TVL is responsible for 99.96% of the entire TVL of $10.305 billion in locked-in restaking protocols.

On February 5, the protocol temporarily reduced its staking cap to encourage organic growth, which increased investor interest in EigenLayer.

EigenLayer’s total value of assets (TVL) increased by more than 181% during this restaking period, reaching $6.05 billion on February 10 from just $2.15 billion on February 5. The project aims to eliminate the new staking cap in the long run.