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EigenLayer: AVS, Operators, Delegators

The three roles, the slashing flow, the launch timeline (mainnet June 2023, full operations April 2024, slashing live April 2025), the EIGEN token, and the AVS ecosystem.

40 min · advanced · part of Restaking & Shared Security

EigenLayer in One Page

EigenLayer is the protocol that made restaking a real category. It was founded by Sreeram Kannan, a University of Washington professor, and announced in 2021 as a research project before launching production contracts in 2023. By late 2025, EigenLayer had moved from a thesis to one of the largest single protocols by TVL in all of crypto, hosted dozens of AVS, and had finally turned on slashing — which is what restaking actually requires to be more than a promise. The protocol has three roles. Restakers (delegators) supply capital. Operators run the software that validates AVS in exchange for fees and slashing risk. AVS are the services that pay operators for security. This three-role structure is the entire conceptual core, and once you internalize it, every other restaking protocol (Symbiotic, Babylon, Karak) makes sense as a variation. This lesson walks through the timeline, the EIGEN token, the slashing flow, and the AVS ecosystem that has built on top.

Also in this lesson

  • The Timeline
  • The Three Roles in Detail
  • The Slashing Flow
  • The AVS Ecosystem
  • EIGEN: The Universal Intersubjective Token

Key terms

EigenLayer
The original restaking protocol on Ethereum, founded by Sreeram Kannan. Mainnet launched June 14, 2023; full operations April 9, 2024; slashing went live April 17, 2025. Hosts dozens of AVS.
EigenDA
EigenLabs' flagship AVS, a data-availability layer that posts rollup data using restaked-ETH security. Launched alongside full operations on April 9, 2024.
EIGEN token
EigenLayer's native token, launched October 1, 2024. Framed as a "universal intersubjective work token" — meant to be slashed for faults that cannot be proven on-chain but can be agreed upon by community consensus.
Intersubjective fault
A fault that cannot be cryptographically proven but can be widely agreed upon by observers (e.g., an oracle reporting a clearly wrong price, a bridge that did not deliver). EIGEN's slashing mechanism is designed to handle these.
StrategyManager
The EigenLayer contract through which restakers deposit LSTs to be allocated to operators. Each LST corresponds to a "strategy" that can be selectively slashed.
Operator commission
The fraction of AVS fee revenue that operators retain before passing the rest to delegators. Typically 5-15% on EigenLayer in late 2025.
Lagrange
An EigenLayer AVS specializing in zero-knowledge coprocessing — verifiable off-chain computation for smart contracts.
Hyperlane
A cross-chain messaging protocol that uses EigenLayer restaked security for its interchain security modules.
AltLayer
An AVS providing restaked rollups: fast finality and decentralized sequencing for optimistic rollups using EigenLayer security.
TVL ATH and post-slashing correction
EigenLayer TVL peaked at approximately $28.6B in September 2025 during the points-mania phase and settled to around $7B by late 2025 as points-driven capital rotated out following slashing activation.

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Educational only — not financial advice.