EigenDA to accept staking delegations after Eigen token claims open today

Claims for EigenLayer’s native tokens will open today after the project announced its distribution and “stakedrop” plan last month.

After claiming, the tokens will remain non-transferable until the end of the third quarter, as clarified by the Eigen Foundation previously. The release date for token transfer functionality is expected by Sept. 30, 2024.

Still, after claiming the tokens today, users can begin staking and delegating to operators of Eigen’s native data availability solution, EigenDA, which is an actively validated service on the network. To support EigenDA, users must delegate their stake to an operator on the platform via the EigenLayer web portal.

"At launch, EigenDA will be the only AVS that uses an EIGEN quorum. We expect other AVSs to follow soon," the project noted.

EigenLayer enables new proof-of-stake projects to quickly establish security by connecting to a broader trust network, circumventing the challenges of developing their own.

The platform began accepting deposits in 2023 and has since accumulated over $15 billion in ether to secure various protocols. The AVSs that benefit from EigenLayer’s security can range from consensus protocols to oracle networks and data availability platforms. 

The introduction of the Eigen token also brought inter-subjective forking, a crypto-economic feature that complements ether restaking in securing the AVS ecosystem.

This feature enables slashing for behaviors that cannot be objectively identified (such as data withholding), and delegating the Eigen token to AVS operators plays an important role in such a framework. EigenDA will be the first AVS to accept Eigen staking delegation.

Eigen tokenomics

The supply of Eigen tokens will be 1.67 billion at launch, according to the Eigen Foundation.

Out of the token supply, 45% has been set aside for the network’s community and ecosystem. Of this portion, 15% was allocated for “stakedrops,” with only 5% available in the first season (claims begin today). Additionally, 15% is earmarked for community initiatives and another 15% for ecosystem development. For comparison, 29.5% was allocated to early investors, while 25.5% was reserved for early contributors.

In response to initial criticism regarding the minimum airdrop of 10 tokens given out in the first season and their non-transferability, the Eigen Foundation updated its plan by granting an additional 100 Eigen tokens to over 280,000 users who interacted with the platform before April 29. This amounts to a minimum allocation of 110 tokens ($1,000) for an eligible user based on pre-market valuations. 

Furthermore, the foundation clarified that investor tokens will start vesting after token transferability starts.

An unrelated IOU of the Eigen token is changing hands on pre-markets like Aevo and Hyperliquid for prices ranging from $8.7 to $9.3.