Justin Sun parks $480m ETH in liquid restaker Ether.fi

Tron founder Justin Sun deployed part of his Ether holdings after accumulating 173,800 ETH last month before the token broke $4,000.

On March 13, Etherscan data showed Sun’s address deposited 120,000 ETH valued at around $480 million into liquid restaking protocol Ether.fi. Sun reportedly acquired the Ethereum (ETH) coins, worth $693 million at press time, for an average price of $2,869 per token between Feb. 8 and Feb. 25.

Ether.fi and other liquid restaking platforms leverage Ethereum’s proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism to secure other blockchains and protocols running atop crypto’s second-largest decentralized network. 

The idea was inspired by Ethereum’s native staking model following its PoS transition, which replaced miners with stakers as crucial network contributors. Ether.fi and similar projects give users access to additional yield and rewards, occasionally in points or airdropped tokens. 

The protocols tap EigenLayer, the original restaking platform, to achieve this extra staking yield. Some users and proponents have shared skepticism about this crypto trend, citing risks to restaking platforms and Ethereum’s mainnet. 

Nevertheless, the liquid restaking ecosystem has grown in leaps and bounds within a few months of its emergence. Users have deposited over $6.8 billion in total value locked (TVL) into this sector, according to DefiLlama.

Ether.fi is the largest player in the liquid restaking business, with $2.9 billion in TVL, around double the size of its closest competitor, Puffer Finance.