Utonic, a nascent restaking protocol on The Open Network (TON), has secured a significant financial commitment of $100 million in total value locked (TVL) prior to its launch. This commitment comes from several firms, including TonStake, iZUMi Finance, InfStones, SatLayer, and StakeStone, signaling robust institutional interest in the protocol.
The TON-based protocol aims to bolster the security and decentralization of the network. Lemon Lin, co-founder of Utonic, explained the strategic approach behind adopting the restaking mechanism on TON, citing its proven success on other platforms: “The tech path of Restaking has been proven successful by Eigenlayer & others on Ethereum, and can be perfectly practiced on TON to enhance security and the level of decentralization.”
The interest in restaking protocols has been growing, as evidenced by the success of EigenLayer, an Ethereum-native restaking protocol. EigenLayer notably surpassed $1 billion in TVL by the end of December 2023 and achieved a remarkable $6.99 billion in TVL by mid-February, becoming the fourth-largest restaking protocol.
Restaking allows validators and stakers to re-stake liquid staking derivative tokens like Lido Staked ETH and RocketPool’s rETH. These assets are then used to secure and validate other networks or deployed in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to generate additional yields.
As Utonic gears up for its launch, it is set to offer an enticing annual percentage yield (APY) of up to 30%. When discussing the potential for yield reductions during bear market conditions, Lin remained optimistic about the protocol’s performance, stating: “Native 3.65% APY + extra 5-15% APY coming from AVS, expecting farming incentives on L2s, the total can be over 30% APY. Even if it’s in a bear market where on-chain liquidity is draining, we still expect 20% APY.”
Utonic enables users to earn yield from three distinct sources: native validator yield, Actively Validated Services (AVS) yield, and farming incentives. Users can stake TON tokens and reallocate those into applications such as securing AVS, thereby earning additional passive yields. The launch of Utonic is scheduled for the end of September, marking a significant addition to the evolving landscape of blockchain and staking protocols.
