EtherFi, Renzo, and Swell Team Up To Launch Liquid Restaking Pool On Balancer – The Defiant

The competition for liquid restaking market share continues to heat up as the sector’s top projects offer boosted points to incentivize users.

On Feb. 10, EtherFi, Renzo, and Swell announced they had partnered to launch a tri-liquid restaking token (LRT) pool on the Balancer decentralized exchange. Liquidity providers can earn points for all three LRT providers, in addition to points for EigenLayer, the pioneering Ethereum restaking protocol.

“We’ve teamed up with Renzo Protocol and EtherFi to introduce the first ever tri-LRT pool,” Swell tweeted. “This revolutionary pool enables you to earn four points at once.”

“We strongly believe that collaboration is important in the LRT space for the benefit of users,” said EtherFi.

Each project’s points are allocated to liquidity providers based on the entire value of liquidity providers’ positions. Points distributions are doubled for its first month of operation, excluding EigenLayer.

Liquid restaking protocols boom

The new pool serves as a mechanism for Swell, EtherFi, and Renzo to collaborate in a bid to expand each project’s respective dominance over the rapidly expanding LRT sector.

The total value locked (TVL) in LRT protocols is up roughly 1,000% since the start of the year at just shy of $3B, according to DeFi Llama.

EtherFi is the sector’s leading protocol with a TVL of $1.04B, accounting for 35% of liquid restaking TVL. EtherFi’s TVL crossed past $1B for the first time on Feb. 11 following the success of its “mega week” campaign offering boosted points to users from Jan. 31 through Feb. 10.

Puffer Finance has emerged as the second-largest LRT protocol, amassing an $857M TVL since enabling deposits on Feb. 1, followed by Kelp DAO with $396M, and Renzo with $270M.

Swell ranks seventh with $41M after launching a liquid restaking token on Jan. 29, meaning the protocol stands to gain the most from the newly launched tri-LRT pool on Balancer.

Bedrock has also emerged as the sixth-largest LRT protocol after launching a points campaign distributing “Bedrock Diamonds” following its transition to an LRT protocol on Jan. 28. Bedrock’s TVL currently sits at $80.6M.