Restaking protocol Symbiotic has just raised $29 million in Series A funding to accelerate the development of its "Universal Staking Framework" model, a more flexible alternative to the leading EigenLayer. The round is led by Pantera Capital, with participation from Coinbase Ventures and more than 100 business angels from leading teams such as Aave, Polygon and StarkWare.
The funds will be used to expand Symbiotic's team, develop its ecosystem, accelerate integration with new networks via tools such as SDKs, and support new features around slashing, cross-chain collateral composition, and risk modelling.
According to our information, this funding round includes a combination of equity and token warrants. To date, no date for TGE has yet been announced in the timetable for the launch of its future token.
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Launched in June 2024, Symbiotic is based on a modular architecture and native compatibility with all ERC-20 tokens. Unlike EigenLayer, which focuses on ETH, it allows a wide range of assets (stETH, stablecoins, LP tokens...) to be restacked on any type of network, from L1 to L2, including modular architectures.
This differentiating positioning enables it to post $850 million in TVL (record $2.7 billion in December 2024), or around 6% of the restaking market - still largely dominated by EigenLayer (54% share, $8.6 billion in TVL).
>> Analysis of the Symbiotic project
>> Analysis of the EigenLayer project
Projects such as Chainlink (CCIP), Spark or Avail have already integrated Symbiotic to strengthen their economic security.
The protocol introduces an independent slashing mechanism, where each collateral position is encapsulated in a customised token incorporating an automatic destruction module ("Burner") in the event of a fault. Several "vault" configurations are proposed, from the simple model to the multioperator multi-network, to meet the different needs of DeFi players.
But while the technical approach is innovative, it also raises challenges: governance still unclear, partial centralisation of operators, lack of a clear roadmap, and potentially risky complexity.
While Symbiotic aims to become the economic coordination layer for blockchains, it remains to be seen whether it will be able to turn this promise into mass adoption, up against a solidly established leader.
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>> EigenLayer, Symbiotic: the restaking war has begun
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