Original author: DeFiMaximalist

Original translation: TechFlow

Another exciting week of ETH CC has come to an end, and it’s clear that the landscape of Ethereum and Liquid Staking is changing rapidly. In this post, I will unpack the main themes and insights from leading voices in the LST (Liquid Staking Token) and LRT (Liquid Reward Token) protocols.

Let’s dive into my key takeaways from leading LST/LRT protocols!

Industry News

1. Capital Flows: Despite the defensive posture of large capital holders, there is still more than $200 million in earnings chasing on circulating PT USDe Token (PT USDe Token) through lending protocols. Early participants can expect to earn significant TVL (total locked volume).

2. Project alignment: Lending projects that seize this opportunity first are likely to gain a large amount of TVL (total locked volume), indicating that they are strategically shifting towards ensuring long-term yield mechanisms.

Leadership Insights

1. Being a CEO at a crypto conference is not glamorous: There are countless panels, often irrelevant to the topic, but there seems to be an unwritten rule that "the more CEOs, the better the panel."

2. VIP duties overwhelm casual social activities, and the schedule is packed.

General Observations

1. Technology Saturation: Sentiment about an overabundance of L2 solutions and infrastructure projects is palpable. Rather than launching yet another new blockchain solution, there is a call for more consumer-focused applications that solve real-world usability problems.

2. Event dynamics: Side events have become a priority, providing more substantive interactions than the main event. This change may reflect a broader trend toward more intimate and impactful networking.

Future Outlook

Optimism remains high, with the consensus being that we could see a bull run in Q4. However, the real challenge lies in refocusing on consumer-centric applications and ensuring that cryptocurrencies remain accessible to the masses.

Want to know the key insights into today’s top LST (Liquid Staking Token) and LRT (Liquid Reward Token) protocols?

I spent the entire week catching up with the following legends and got their key insights for this year’s ETH CC!

Let’s find out!

@altcoinandy_ - Founder of @loopfixyz

• “AVS (Automated Validator Selection) benefits are still a big question mark for LRT (Liquid Reward Token). Mike from @ether_fi said it very well: ‘This will take years.’ The market needs to focus on building applications that benefit from re-collateralized security, not more infrastructure.”

@CryptoKotler - Founder of @nektarnetwork

• “Ethereum remains dominant, and restaking has become an unexpected ally, highlighting the gap we plan to fill at Nektar. DVT (Distributed Validator Technology) is critical in staking, and pioneers like Obol and SSV are setting the standard.”

@jasnoodle - @puffer_finance core contributor

• “These activities are as fragmented as Ethereum. This is not necessarily a bad thing, it’s a sign of progress in following the Ethereum roadmap. We just need the infrastructure to stitch it back together.”

Alyssa - Business Development Manager at @Bedrock_DeFi

• “It’s been interesting to see so much Bitcoin-related activity on ETHCC this year. The growth of the liquid re/staking sector is creating a coherent ecosystem connecting Ethereum, Bitcoin, and L2.”

@PandeyMikhil - Co-founder of @pStakeFinance

• “Interest in the Bitcoin ecosystem, especially sustainable Bitcoin yields and BTCfi, appears to be at an all-time high. All Bitcoin events during ETHCC are always packed with core Bitcoin developers.”

@sina___v - @babylon_chain Ecosystem Lead

• This year's ETHcc has been full of excitement for Bitcoin. The Ethereum merger brought tremendous value, giving rise to LST (Liquid Staking Token), re-staking, LRT (Liquid Reward Token), and new DeFi use cases. I expect the launch of the Babylon Bitcoin staking protocol to bring a similar development trajectory to Bitcoin. A vibrant BTC security market can have a huge impact on the entire DeFi ecosystem.

@s 0x n 1 ck - Founder of @mellowprotocol

• “There are a lot of amazing people and activity on ETHCC. Restaking continues to gain more attention, and LRT (Liquid Reward Token) plays a key role in risk management, attracting and allocating capital, and integrating into the DeFi ecosystem. We are not competing between restaking protocols or between LRTs, our common goal is to replace local network launches with more efficient shared security and make consensus a commodity.”

Nikita - Head of Business Development at @EverclearOrg

• “More and more LRT projects are looking at attracting new users and liquidity from the emerging L2, where there is a whole new market for liquidity and volume, especially with Arbitrum and Base. Recent examples include Kelp, Swell, Bedrock, and many other projects that have been entering this space and expanding beyond Ethereum L1.”

@LippmanEthan - Co-founder of @ebisu_finance

• “People are realizing that real re-staking yields are a joke right now because many AVS (Application-Specific Validators) are not generating income yet.

• People still want to earn yield on their LRT (Liquid Reward Token). LRT yield vaults and ‘real yield’ products like @3janexyz are showing product market fit (PMF).

• Pendle is where point speculation is taking place, we saw outflows at the end of EigenLayer’s LRT points, while Symbiotic and Karak are growing.

• When the payment function is launched, EigenLayer's income may be composed of EIGEN and AVS points. "

@defiyaco - Head of DeFi at @LidoFinance

• “Whether the existing re-staking mechanism can be sustained after the initial enthusiasm cools remains to be seen, but one thing is certain: there is no re-staking without staking. I believe that the best (liquid) re-staking protocols can only be built on the best staking infrastructure. ETHCC reinforces this belief.”

@amadeobrands - Founder of @YieldNestFi

• “Ethereum dominates with the highest settlement guarantees and an amazing community. DeFi Summer 2.0 is coming, many new restaking applications are being built, and YieldNest will capture these rich yields in a safe, positive-sum environment. Exciting times are coming!”

@rose 3 e 3 e 3  - Chief Strategy Officer of @Stake_Stone

• “This year at ETHCC we have moved from scalability and high throughput to ‘live blockchain’, but we are still not there yet for the next billion users. What comes after points and reward farms? Has TVL (Total Value Locked) lost its original purpose and meaning? As protocols lock up LPs’ (liquidity providers) funds, the future of liquidity should be the Total Value Trusted by users and LPs, not the Total Value Locked.”

@cktlore - Co-founder of @yalaorg

• “The space has matured significantly, with investors and users shifting their focus from speculation to usability, community strength, and design of protocols and tokens. Now is a good time for projects with unique added value, an active user base, and strong product-market fit (PMF) to succeed.”

@0x iamnico - Founder of @tenderize_me

• “The surge in new restaked tokens has created liquidity challenges. Current trading venues are saturated, and the market is becoming increasingly fragmented with the emergence of new LST (Liquid Staking Token) and LRT (Liquid Reward Token). The market urgently needs to improve the liquidity of staked assets.”

@JacobPPhillips - Co-founder of @Lombard_Finance

• “ETHcc shows re-staking fatigue appears to be setting in. Watching second and third order effects (net new capital in DeFi, composable yields, security market innovation) reignite excitement. BTC staking is the next frontier.”

@chudnovglavniy - Founder of @3janexyz

• “The last few months have been a golden age for infrastructure — people are now realizing that there are no actual scalable decentralized applications (dapps) using these AVS (Application-Specific Validators). Looking forward to seeing how dapps integrate AVS around TEE (Trusted Execution Environment), zKTLS (Zero-Knowledge Transport Layer Security), co-processors, etc.”

@ccossio - Founder of @meta_pool

• “In the traditional financial world, the practice of restaking is similar to reinvesting profits in the diversification market. This practice is to reinvest the profits gained into other assets or markets to generate new income or returns. The surge in LRT (Liquid Reward Token) is the natural result of this series of actions.”

@rostique - Founder and CEO of @StroomNetwork

• “EthCC is more like BitCC, and it’s exciting to see so many exciting Bitcoin projects working together to build the Bitcoin DeFi ecosystem.”

@0x ASK - Co-founder of @OmniFDN

• “What the industry needs most from re-staking is slashing.”