We talked a few weeks ago about how the reaction to EigenLayer's EIGEN airdrop saw the amount of queued withdrawers on the platform shoot up.
While there were some points of contention about the airdrop, including VPN restrictions and the initial period of non-transferability imposed on the tokens, the Eigen Foundation came out a few days later to both expand airdrop allocations and clarify some of the timing around the token unlocks and transferability going forward, which helped calm some fears.
It is possible some users who had only deposited into EigenLayer to farm the airdrop were also content to exit the platform in the wake of the snapshot being taken, not only users being mad about the initial EIGEN reveal.
However, we now see the actual impacts of that withdrawal queue uptick. Since withdrawers are subjected to a 7-day escrow period before they can withdraw their funds, actual outflows from the platform are tracked on a roughly one-week delay compared to when they were initiated. The number of queue withdrawers first picked up on April 29, when the tokenomics for EIGEN was first announced, but we saw the number of actual withdrawers from EigenLayer surge starting on May 6, after the escrow period was up.
But beyond just withdrawers, we can now more clearly see the capital flight facing EigenLayer. The number of depositors to EigenLayer shot up in mid-April after they launched their mainnet and unpaused deposits for liquid staking tokens, so the uptick in withdrawals did not necessarily have to be a cause for many issues for the restaking platform.
And it seems like the pressure has been relatively manageable so far. Since May 6, there have been four days when daily net flows have exceeded $45 million, indicating a decent amount of funds leaving the platform. That $45 million still pales compared to EigenLayer's almost $15 billion in TVL, so the amount of funds securing their restaking network has remained largely unchanged.
While net negative days have become more common after the EIGEN launch, net positive days still happen, with the platform bringing in $57 million on May 15. It also looks like the initial surge in withdrawers has been calming down, although the daily level still tends to be higher compared to before the token was revealed.
But now that EigenLayer has launched its mainnet, it is now in a position to pass on that extra yield to depositors that it had promised before. And since EigenLayer is the restaking platform with the largest security network by far, it will likely be the most attractive option for new services looking to bypass bootstrapping their own liquidity. So EigenLayer is in a good position to help attract new services to boost their depositors' additional rewards, which may also be enough to get users to keep their money with the protocol now.
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