EigenLayer’s EIGEN cracks top 100 market rank in trading debut
2024-10-01

EigenLayer’s native token, EIGEN, cracked the top 100 tokens by market capitalization after commencing trading on Oct. 1, according to CoinMarketCap. 
The token unlocked at 5:00 am UTC and has been trading between $3.50 and $4.50 per token on Binance. 
According to Binance, it currently trades at around $3.85, implying a fully diluted value of approximately $6.5 billion.
Its price aligns with the implied spot prices on derivatives exchanges and over-the-counter trading before the launch. 
“EIGEN launched exactly in line with the pre-market price, sitting at $7B FDV,” Aylo, the pseudonymous founder of Alpha Please, said in an Oct. 1 post on the X social media platform.
EigenLayer’s EIGEN currently ranks 94th among tokens by market cap, according to CoinMarketCap. 
That’s lower than Optimism (OP), Uniswap (UNI), and Filecoin (FIL) but more than Ethena (ENA). 
“6 months ago I’m not sure anyone would have said that $EIGEN would be valued less than those above coins,” Aylo said, while adding:

EigenLayer launched Eigen in a May airdrop but blocked the tokens from being transferred until October.
A person familiar with the matter told Cointelegraph that informal over-the-counter trades purportedly rose from around $2 in August to roughly $3.50 as recently as Sept. 24. These comments are consistent with information from EigenLayer’s community forums. 
Tokenholders stand to benefit as more protocols start paying EigenLayer’s retakers, who deposit tokens — including EIGEN — as collateral to secure other networks, or “actively validated services” (AVS), in EigenLayer’s parlance.
According to DefiLlama, as of Sept. 30, EigenLayer commanded nearly $12 billion in total value locked (TVL).
In August, EigenDA, EigenLayer’s affiliated AVS, started paying restakers in Ether ETHUSD and EIGEN rewards. Other AVS, including Arpa Network, are following suit. 