In a major boost for The Open Network (TON), Utonic, an emerging restaking protocol, has secured a substantial $100 million in institutional commitment ahead of its official launch.
This impressive total value locked (TVL) includes investments from prominent firms such as TonStake, iZUMi Finance, InfStones, SatLayer, and StakeStone.
Enhancing Security and Decentralization on TON
Utonic aims to bolster TON’s security and decentralization through its innovative restaking technology. Lemon Lin, co-founder of Utonic, highlighted the protocol’s potential, stating, “The tech path of Restaking has been proven successful by Eigenlayer & others on Ethereum and can be perfectly practiced on TON to enhance security and the level of decentralization.” Lin’s comments show the protocol’s commitment to leveraging proven strategies from Ethereum’s EigenLayer, which saw significant success, surpassing $1 billion in TVL by Dec. 28, 2023, and reaching $6.99 billion by Feb. 15, 2024.
Attractive Yields Amid Market Conditions
Utonic is set to launch with an enticing annual percentage yield (APY) of up to 30%. Despite potential bear market conditions, Lin anticipates a robust yield of over 20%. He elaborated, “Native 3.65% APY + extra 5-15% APY coming from AVS, expecting farming incentives on L2s, the total can be over 30% APY. Even if it’s in a bear market where on-chain liquidity is draining, we still expect 20% APY.” The Utonic protocol allows TON restakers to earn yield from multiple sources, including native validator yield, Actively Validated Services (AVS) yield, and farming incentives.
The Growing Trend of Restaking and Liquid Staking
The success of EigenLayer and similar protocols has sparked increased interest in restaking and liquid staking solutions across various blockchains. As observed by Bybit Research, liquid staking on Solana is projected to grow nearly five-fold, reaching $18 billion, driven by retail investor adoption seeking enhanced liquidity and capital efficiency.
Also read: State Street and Galaxy Launch Three New Crypto ETFs, Focusing on Web3 and Blockchain Growth
Liquid staking, which offers capital efficiency by allowing investors to deploy staked tokens in other DeFi applications, is a significant trend. On Ethereum, liquid staking dominates as the largest protocol category with a combined TVL exceeding $39.5 billion.
Comments