Ether.Fi's Token Falls 20% After Debut

• The stakers that have locked more than $12 billion staked on Binance Launchpad received 20 million tokens.
• ETHFI was trading at $4.13 with an FDV of $4.13 billion.
• The initial circulating supply is 115.2 million tokens.

ETHFI, the governance token of the largest liquid restaking protocol Ether.Fi, debuted at $4.13 after the token was distributed via an airdrop and to participants of a Binance Launchpad round. The token has since slumped by more than 20%.

At the time of writing, ETHFI is trading at $3.60 on Binance and recorded a trading volume of over $118 million in the first 45 minutes of trading. The token had a fully diluted value (FDV), the market value of a token if the entire supply ends up in circulation, of $3.6 billion.

More than $2 billion worth of the FDUSD stablecoin and 17.3 million BNB ($10 billion) were staked on the Binance Launchpad. Launchpad stakers receive an allocation of ETHFI relative to the amount they staked.

Several of the recently-listed tokens on Binance’s launchpad slumped after release: ARKM dropped from its debut price of 90 cents to 30 cents, while PORTAL fell from $3.60 to $2.08 three after being issued.

The max supply of ETHFI is capped at one billion, with 20 million tokens being allocated to the Binance Launchpad and 60 million tokens being set aside for “season one” of the token airdrop, which ended on March 15. An additional 50 million tokens will be distributed after “season two.”

Investors will receive 32.5% of the token’s total supply over the course of a two-year vesting schedule, whilst core contributors will receive 23.26% over three years.

The initial circulating supply will be 115.2 million tokens.

Ether.Fi's total value locked (TVL) has surged 117% in the last 30 days with total deposits approaching $3 billion, according to DefiLlama.

Restaking is a strategy used by those that stake ether (ETH) and want to generate additional yield. By using a protocol like Ether.Fi, stakers receive a liquid restaking token (LRT) that can be used elsewhere on other protocols, they also receive loyalty points that can be converted into a token airdrop.

UPDATE (March 18, 12:50 UTC): Updates headline and lede.