In November, the volume of the Ethereum NFT market hit a low point. Since then, trading volumes have been gradually climbing higher every week. Even though they’re far from the levels of the previous cycle, the trend is already evident.

Trending Collections Rotation

A fierce battle is underway for the second most popular collection after CryptoPunks. Unlike most blue-chip collections, Pudgy Penguins have experienced growth over the past year and quadrupled in price since November — from 5 ETH to 20 ETH. They’re now closely approaching Bored Ape Yacht Club, trailing by only 2 ETH in value.

Yesterday, one of the biggest NFT deals in history was struck, with a collector acquiring ten Autoglyphs for 5,000 ETH (~$15 million). These artworks will be on display in museums.

ERC-404 tokens, which we wrote about earlier, and the core collection Pandora may also add to the upcoming hype.

Aidrops for Holding NFTs?

Don’t forget about the NFTs of major projects, which are likely to be used as criteria for airdrops. For example, AltLayer distributed lots of coins to holders of its OG NFTs. And the free NFT Farcaster OG went up to 4-5 ETH amid expectations of a possible airdrop.

We might be in for a trend of airdrops for holders of blue-chip NFT collections, just like DYM gave away tokens to Pudgy Penguins holders.

Blockchains specifically built for NFTs, such as Zora (OP Stack) and Rari Chain (Arbitrum Orbit), are also being developed. These, like other appchains, aim to optimize the trading and issuance of NFTs with very low gas fees.

To sum up, NFTs undoubtedly have a future, both speculative and fundamental. But it remains to be seen which trend in the NFT world will take off stronger.

What is EigenLayer?

EigenLayer is the first and only restaking protocol on Ethereum. Restaking allows ETH to be reused on the consensus layer. Users who stake ETH natively or with a Liquid Staking Tokens (LST) can opt-in to EigenLayer smart contracts to restake their ETH or LST and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network for additional rewards.

With a significant amount of ETH locked into EigenLayer smart contracts, it could become the core of decentralized finance in 2024.

EigenLayer's TVL is quickly climbing above $8 billion, and the next time the deposit window opens, it will definitely cross the $10 billion mark. But even now there's a lot happening on EigenLayer.

Restaking quickly became one of the top 10 categories in decentralized finance. While it is still a small part of the total TVL on Ethereum, it accounts for nearly ⅕ of the liquid staking TVL on Ethereum. Quite a significant amount, right? 

Moreover, Liquid Restaking accounts for 48% of EigenLayer's TVL. There's a reason for such high LRT usage: airdrop hunters.

Liquid restaking is one of the fastest growing narratives in DeFi today. With over $4.5 billion in total value locked, it opens up a great earning opportunity for users.

How To Get All The Juices From EigenLayer’s Airdrop?

EigenLayer has announced an airdrop in conjunction with the introduction of Restaked Points. This system measures users' contribution to the shared security of the EigenLayer ecosystem. Restaked Points are a measure of staking participation, calculated by multiplying the amount staked in units of ETH by the number of hours staked.

But that's not even half of the potential rewards! Remember to use the Liquid Restaking Protocols when you plan to resume your liquid stakes. Liquid restaking protocols have also introduced their own point reward systems to incentivize users. They are also part of EigenLayer's restaked point systems, and the reward is distributed proportionally to all stakers. This means that you're farming 2 airdrops when you use Liquid Restaking protocols!

If you're looking for even higher yields and more risk, check out the LRTFi category. These projects use Liquid Restaked Tokens (LRT) to maximize the return on your investment. Some have already released tokens, while others are planning to do so. Getting involved with these protocols can be rewarding, especially if you use EigenLayer, Liquid Restaking protocols, or even Liquid Staking protocols (like Lido or Rocket Pool).

Important: If you've received an airdrop from EigenLayer, consider staking it. Lately, many projects tend to reward stakers of prominent protocols. Take Celestia (TIA) and Dymension (DYM) for example: ATOM stakers got TIA airdrop, TIA stakers got DYM and ALT. Such an "airdrop train" with EigenLayer can be even bigger! 

Hurry to explore the EigenLayer ecosystem to collect all possible airdrops!

Learn more at https://cryptorank.io/tags/eigenlayer-ecosystem.

EigenLayer has raised over $164M from top tier funds at an undisclosed valuation. Several Restaking and LRTFi projects have also closed funding rounds. These projects have enough money to reward their users and continue to thrive.

Explore more funding rounds at https://cryptorank.io/funding-rounds.

The Bottom Line

EigenLayer is positioned to be one of the biggest airdrops of the year along with LayerZero, zkSync, and Linea. However, it opens up more opportunities than just a single airdrop.

There are several LRT projects that have announced airdrop plans as well. With the growth of the ecosystem and more utilities that EigenLayer brings to the blockchain, its value continues to grow.

Don't miss out on the biggest airdrop of 2024!