Liquid restaking (LRT) protocol Swell, has partnered with AltLayer and EigenDA to launch its own Layer 2 rollup for restaking. Building on ~$1 billion in TVL across its restaked LST and LRT, Swell’s L2 will specialize in liquid restaked assets.
Unlike a classical rollup, Swell’s rollup will instead take the form of a “restaked rollup”, a framework pioneered by AltLayer. As a restaked rollup, the rollup will come with a range of Actively Validated Services (AVS) that will augment its security and decentralization by offering core services such as decentralized sequencing, decentralized verification, and faster finality by leveraging EigenLayer’s restaking mechanism.
For Swell ecosystem participants, Swell’s rollup will offer native restaking yield, increased scalability and lower fees, along with new flywheels for LRTfi. These will be rooted in new and familiar DeFi primitives built on native staking and restaking yield.
The native gas token for the chain will be ETH in accordance with the rules of Optimisms' Law of Chains. The governance token will be SWELL, which will be used to govern the chain in addition to swETH and rswETH.
Swell Founder Daniel Dizon commented: “Expanding Swell’s liquid restaking offerings into the L2 for restaking is the next logical step for the Swell community and DAO. It extends on the existing vision of the protocol to deliver the best liquid restaking experience for DeFi. Swell’s L2 will drive step-change for the Swell community and deliver fresh innovation to DeFi, along with EigenLayer and its growing ecosystem of Actively Validated Services (AVS’s).”
On this joint collaboration between Swell and AltLayer, Yaoqi Jia, CEO of AltLayer mentioned that: “Restaked rollups combine the ease of spinning up rollups using rollup stacks with the power of EigenLayer's restaking mechanism to bootstrap network security and build a decentralized network for core rollup services. It is exciting to see restaked rollups coming into production in the coming months. And that too by a great partner like Swell which is one of the largest LRTs in the market today. We are looking forward to supporting Swell in their restaked rollup journey, and the building out of LRTfi on the Swell rollup.”
About Swell
Swell is one of the biggest Ethereum liquid restaking protocols in the rapidly expanding LRT space, with more than $1B+ in TVL (Mar 2024). Swell’s swETH is already the second-largest restaked LST on EigenLayer, and rswETH is one of the fastest-growing LRTs in the market. With more 100,000 users, Swell is also building the L2 for restaking by leveraging restaked rollups by AltLayer, altogether built on top of the Polygon zkEVM stack. Swell is backed by Framework, IOSG, Maven 11, and more.
About EigenLabs
Eigenlabs is the research organization leading development of EigenDA. Founded by Sreeram Kannan, EigenLabs is backed by Blockchain Capital, Polychain Capital, Ethereal Ventures, and more.
About AltLayer
Founded in 2021, AltLayer is an open and decentralized protocol which accelerates the launch of rollups with optimistic and ZK rollup stacks. Its flagship product ‘restaked rollups’ has been an industry disruptor, unlocking the true value of rollups with enhanced security, decentralization, fast finality, and interoperability.
AltLayer’s restaked rollups consist of three vertically-integrated ‘Actively Validated Services’ (AVS) titled MACH, VITAL, and SQUAD. These products leverage the permissionless nature of rollup stacks, and the principle of restaking, which allows networks to borrow economic security from Ethereum.
Swell will be one of the first instances of restaked rollups in action and will be powered by three key AltLayer products: MACH (for faster finality), VITAL (for decentralized verification) and SQUAD (for decentralized sequencing). Each of these core services will operate as an AVS and will borrow security from Ethereum via EigenLayer’s restaking mechanism.
Built atop its protocol is a multi-chain, multi-VM compatible Rollups-as-a-Service (RaaS) launcher, a hassle-free platform allowing developers and beginners to spin up a customized rollup within 2 minutes!
Together, these products form the bedrock of a modular blockchain ecosystem - home to hundreds of thousands of rollups that can accelerate scaling for any Web3 application. Industries spanning the NFT sector, Web3 gaming, DeFi, real-world asset tokenization, and others leverage these rollups to scale their applications.
About Chainlink
Chainlink is the industry-standard decentralized computing platform powering the verifiable web. Chainlink has enabled over $9 trillion in transaction value by providing financial institutions, startups, and developers worldwide with access to real-world data, offchain computation, and secure cross-chain interoperability across any blockchain. Chainlink powers verifiable applications and high-integrity markets for banking, DeFi, global trade, gaming, and other major sectors.
Learn more about Chainlink by visiting chain.link or reading the developer documentation at docs.chain.link.
