The New Staking Wave: In-Depth Analysis of EigenLayer's Ecological Risks and Security Participation Strategies

With the rise of the concept of re-staking, a large number of re-staking projects based on EigenLayer have emerged in the market. Re-staking aims to maximize user returns by sharing users' stake with other projects through the trust foundation of the Ethereum Beacon Chain, while also allowing other projects to enjoy the same level of consensus trust and security assurance as the ETH Beacon Chain.

To help investors better understand the potential risks between different re-staking projects, a security team conducted a comprehensive study of the mainstream re-staking protocols and LST assets in the market, systematically organizing the relevant risks, with the aim of allowing users to better manage the corresponding risks while pursuing high returns.

Overview of the main risks of re-staking

Most of the current market's restaking protocols are built on EigenLayer, and users participating in restaking may face the following main risks:

1. Contract Security Risks:

   • Users need to interact with the project's contract and bear the risk of the contract being attacked.
   • If the EigenLayer contract is attacked, the funds of projects built on it will also be harmed.
   • The funds for LST re-staking are directly stored in the EigenLayer contract, facing higher contract risks.
   • Some project parties have sensitive permissions, which may lead to the misappropriation of user funds.

2. LST Token Risks:

   • LST token may de-peg
   • LST contract upgrades or attacks may cause LST value to deviate or incur losses.

3. Exit liquidity risk:

   • Except for EigenLayer, most restaking protocols do not support direct withdrawals.
   • If the project party does not upgrade the withdrawal function in a timely manner, users may need to rely on the secondary market to obtain liquidity for exit.

Mainstream Re-staking Protocol Risk Analysis

After research, it was found that the current mainstream re-staking protocols generally have the following problems:

1. The project completion rate is low, and most of the withdrawal logic has not yet been implemented.
2. Centralized risks are significant, and user assets are ultimately controlled by a multi-signature wallet, which poses a potential exit scam risk for the project team.
3. Internal malicious acts or loss of multi-signature private keys may result in asset losses.

In addition, as the cornerstone of all projects, EigenLayer itself also has some notable risk points:

1. The mainnet contract has not fully implemented all the functions outlined in the white paper, especially the AVS and slash mechanisms.
2. Users need to run a beacon chain node themselves for native ETH staking again, bearing the risk of being slashed.
3. The withdrawal process requires cooperation from node service providers, increasing the complexity of exiting.

LST Token Risk Analysis

Mainstream LST tokens such as stETH, rETH, cbETH, etc., each have varying degrees of risk, including considerations related to contract upgradability, Oracle dependency, and centralization.

Best practices for reducing the risk of re-staking

Based on the current research results, the following relatively safe participation strategies are proposed:

1. Fund allocation suggestions:

   • Large amounts of funds can consider directly participating in EigenLayer's native ETH for further stake.
   • Users seeking liquidity can choose the relatively stable stETH to participate in EigenLayer.
   • Users with a higher risk tolerance can participate in other projects built on EigenLayer to a certain extent, but they need to consider exit risks and secondary market liquidity.

2. Risk Monitoring:

   • Advanced users can configure contract monitoring to pay attention to contract upgrades and sensitive operations by the project party.
   • Consider using automated tools to set up automatic deposit functions based on factors such as changes in TVL and fluctuations in ETH prices.

In summary, re-staking as an emerging concept still carries many unknown risks. Investors should carefully assess their own risk tolerance, allocate assets reasonably, and continuously pay attention to project developments and market dynamics to maximize asset safety.