What is EigenLayer and what does it do?

EigenLayer is a protocol on Ethereum that lets people put their staked ETH to work securing other networks and services, a practice known as restaking. When people ask what EigenLayer crypto is, they may also mean its token, EIGEN, or the wider EigenCloud platform it now belongs to. The mechanics of restaking, operators and slashing are covered in what is restaking?, so this guide focuses on EigenLayer itself.

What does EigenLayer do?

As of October 2026, EigenLayer's docs describe it as the staking layer of EigenCloud. Users stake ETH and EIGEN to secure the infrastructure behind apps, agents and services that need their work checked. Eigen Labs, led by CEO Sreeram Kannan, builds the software.

EigenCloud launched on June 17, 2025, Blockworks reported. It bundles several products:

• EigenLayer, the restaking and security layer.
• EigenDA, a data availability service that Blockworks described as an alternative to Ethereum's blob space, with throughput above 10 MB per second.
• EigenCompute, which runs software off-chain in containers with results that can be verified.
• EigenVerify, a dispute system in which developers set the rules for correct work and breaches are slashed.

Eigen Labs said its goal was a "verifiable cloud". In July 2025 it cut about 25% of its staff to focus on EigenCloud, Forklog reported.

What is EigenLayer ETH?

EigenLayer ETH usually means ETH, or a liquid staking token, deposited into EigenLayer's contracts to be restaked. Forklog put EigenLayer's total value locked at about $12.2 billion in July 2025, down from a peak near $20 billion in June 2024. Many users reach EigenLayer through liquid restaking protocols such as ether.fi, which deposit on their behalf.

What is the EIGEN token?

EIGEN is EigenLayer's own token. Its docs call it a universal intersubjective work token. It is meant to secure faults that people outside the chain can broadly agree happened but that cannot be proven by code, such as data being withheld or an AI result falling outside an accepted margin. ETH restaking covers faults that can be proven on-chain.

The penalty is unusual. If a majority of EIGEN stakers misbehave, anyone can fork the token so those stakers cannot redeem. Stakers use a companion token, bEIGEN, which is the one that can be forked, while ordinary EIGEN held in DeFi is shielded from forks.

The Eigen Foundation announced EIGEN on April 29, 2024, with an initial supply of about 1.67 billion tokens. It allocated 45% to the community, including 15% for "stakedrops" to restakers, 29.5% to investors and 25.5% to early contributors, with the last two locked for three years. EIGEN was not transferable at first. In June 2025 the venture firm a16z bought $70 million of EIGEN, taking its total commitment above $170 million, according to Blockworks.

Restaking adds smart contract and slashing risk on top of normal staking, and token values can fall sharply.