Opinion by: Altan Tutar, co-founder and CEO of Nuffle Labs.
2025 shows promising signs of being the year of the anticipated third crypto bull market, evidenced by assets continually reaching all-time highs and breaking records in close succession. In this period of explosive growth, however, we also witness a peculiar phenomenon of haves and have-nots.
There are 328 chains listed on DefiLlama. The 318 outside of the top 10 make up only 13.18% of total value locked. This concentration indicates that the ecosystem is becoming increasingly top-heavy, resulting in dried-up networks with billions of dollars of untapped value and a decentralized set of validators.
The ecosystem suffers from an innovation paradox. While new layer-1 and layer-2 solutions continue to emerge, the market is slowly becoming oversaturated, leading to higher barriers to entry and capital inefficiency. Many chains inadvertently fail to keep pace with technological advancements, leading to a cycle of diminishing returns and ecosystem bloat.
What if we could sustainably revive these chains? Enter restaking, an approach that can potentially reshape how we think about assets and network security.
Restaking is a gateway to interoperability
Restaking enables users to extend the security provided by their staked assets across multiple networks, effectively multiplying utility and yield opportunities. It’s the blockchain equivalent of simultaneously putting your money to work in various investments. Like a savvy investor won’t let their investments sit idle in a single low-yield account, blockchain assets shouldn’t be confined to securing just one network at a time.
As the natural next step in the evolution of liquid staking, restaking is an elegant solution to multiple problems. For users, it offers more significant yield opportunities without additional capital. For networks, it provides a new source of activity and security. For the ecosystem as a whole, it provides a gateway to true interoperability. Assets can now have mobility across different chains and the ability to contribute to multiple chains, leading to one ecosystem of infinite chains.
The Ethereum ecosystem is already leading the charge in the liquid staking space. The growth trajectory of platforms like EigenLayer demonstrates the increasing appetite for restaking. Furthermore, Vitalik Buterin’s proposal to reduce the validator staking threshold from 32 Ether (ETH) to 1 ETH could transform the staking landscape.
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With a lower staking threshold, we could see thousands of new validators entering the ecosystem. This increased decentralization would strengthen network security and create a well-rounded foundation for restocking across the entire blockchain landscape. The network effect could be exponential, as each new participant potentially contributes to multiple chains through restaking.
Overcoming technical barriers
Although an enticing solution, we must acknowledge the challenges that lie ahead. Some may question the stability of restaking architecture as the infrastructure becomes multilayered, making the ecosystem more complex rather than simplifying it in the long run. Critical challenges for the restaking movement include building new trust networks, value loss from multiple fees and weakened security due to fragmented trust.
The current restocking landscape is fragmented, often requiring complex bridging operations that introduce risk and friction. For example, to contribute assets to EigenLayer, the largest staking marketplace, you must bridge them to the Ethereum layer 1 and restake them there. This action introduces bridge risk and results in a poor user experience.
The technical hurdles should not be underestimated but should also not be considered impossible. Restaking should be as easy as a one-click solution, and recent advances in message-passing technologies and modularity suggest we’re on the correct path to making this a reality. The active development of crosschain messaging protocols and improvements in bridge security are further pushing for seamless restaking solutions.
Reviving all assets
The future of blockchain shouldn’t be about picking a winner among the many chains. Instead, the future of blockchain should be about creating an ecosystem where every asset can contribute maximum value across multiple chains. This transformation won’t happen overnight, but we are seeing the start of a broader movement. As more users recognize the opportunity costs of traditional staking and as platforms develop more user-friendly restaking solutions, we could see a rapid acceleration in adoption.
With the staking space evolving and barriers to entry falling, particularly with Ethereum’s proposed staking threshold reduction, the opportunity cost of inaction is growing. The ultimate promise of restaking is not just additional yield opportunities; it’s about creating a more robust and interconnected ecosystem. Instead of having hundreds of isolated chains characterized by competition over scarce resources, we can build a web of interlinked chains that share security and liquidity.
Altan Tutar is the co-founder and CEO of Nuffle Labs. Altan previously worked at the Near Foundation as a core contributor and as a member of the senior technical business development team. Altan also completed his postgraduate tenure at Imperial College as a researcher.
This article is for general information purposes and is not intended to be and should not be taken as legal or investment advice. The views, thoughts, and opinions expressed here are the author’s alone and do not necessarily reflect or represent the views and opinions of Cointelegraph.
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