EigenLayer’s EIGEN token unlock looms, futures tip a $6.8B FDV

Ethereum restaking protocol EigenLayer is only hours away from unlocking its native token, EIGEN, and derivative markets hint at a bullish debut, according to trading data from decentralized perpetual exchanges. 

EigenLayer’s native token has been non-transferable since launching in May but EIGEN-linked perpetual futures — or “perps” — indicate a spot price of approximately $4 per token, according to data from exchanges Aevo and Hyperliquid .  

“Most likely scenario is airdrop farmers dumping weighs on the price for a bit, but I think there will be a lot of interest in picking up cheap $EIGEN for the rest of the cycle,” Aylo, the pseudonymous founder of Alpha Please, said in a Sept. 30 post on the X platform.

EIGEN perps steadily climbed in September. Source: Aevo

Related: Restaking will spark the next big rush of money into crypto

The token is scheduled to unlock at 5:00 a.m. UTC on Oct. 1. It will start trading on centralized exchanges (CEX), including Binance and BitFinex , shortly after. 

With a total supply of 1.67 billion, EIGEN’s fully diluted value (FDV) is on track to exceed $6.7 billion. Approximately 200 million EIGEN tokens are in circulation.

The price of EIGEN perps on Aevo and Hyperliquid has steadily climbed since early September, nearly doubling from lows of around $2 per token. Aevo and Hyperliquid’s 24-hour trading volume adds up to around $1 million, possibly insufficient to fully reflect market dynamics.

The perps market squares with EIGEN’s price in informal over-the-counter (OTC) trades, which purportedly rose from around $2 in August to roughly $3.50 as recently as Sept. 24, a person familiar with the matter told Cointelegraph. These comments are consistent with information from EigenLayer’s community forums. 

Following EigenLayer’s May airdrop, early OTC trades initially priced EIGEN as high as $10 per token, the person said. 

EigenLayer’s TVL. Source: DeFiLlama

Token holders stand to benefit as more protocols start paying EigenLayer’s restakers, who deposit tokens — including EIGEN — as collateral to secure other networks, or “actively validated services” (AVS), in EigenLayer’s parlance.

As of Sept. 30, EigenLayer commanded nearly $12 billion in total value locked (TVL), according to DefiLlama.

In August, EigenDA, EigenLayer’s affiliated AVS, started paying restakers in Ether ( ETH ) and EIGEN rewards. Other AVS, including ARPA Network, are following suit . 

“The last ecosystem map I saw had 60+ AVS building on top of Eigenlayer,” Aylo said, adding:

“I think the ‘AWS for decentralized services’ will command a higher valuation than the pre-market is giving it currently.”

Magazine: Crypto whales like Humpy are gaming DAO votes — but there are solutions