The Ethereum re-pledge protocol EigenLayer is investigating a suspicious EIGEN token sale. About US$5.5 million in EIGEN tokens were originally supposed to be in the lock-up period, but were sold off in the market recently. These tokens were held by a wallet that may be related to employees, former employees, or early investors. The outrageous situation of violating the token lock-up period also caused an uproar in the community. EigenLayer announced the results of the survey on 10/5.
EigenLayer investors violate token lock-up period
On October 5, EigenLayer publicly stated that it was investigating the unauthorized token sale. "We are investigating unapproved sales activities related to this wallet, and we will share the results of the investigation with the community as soon as possible," the team said.
Data from Arkham Intelligence shows that the wallets under surveillance had received funds from EigenLayer’s multi-signature Gnosis Safe. To date, the wallet has sold over 1.67 million EIGEN tokens, which may indicate that the lock-up period was violated early.
EigenLayer responds: Investor emails were hacked
EigenLayer announced the reason after an investigation because an email involving an investor transferring tokens to escrow was compromised by malicious attackers.
As a result, 1,673,645 EIGEN tokens were mistakenly transferred to the attacker’s address. The attackers sold these stolen EIGEN tokens through decentralized exchange platforms and moved the stablecoins to centralized exchanges. We are in contact with the platforms and law enforcement and some funds have been frozen.
Lock-up rules for employees and investors
In order to prevent employees and investors from selling EIGEN tokens early, EigenLayer has established strict token locking rules. The agreement prohibits current and former employees from staking the EIGEN tokens they received from Eigen Labs on the platform until September 30, 2025. Additionally, any token sales are frozen until 2025, ensuring early contributors adhere to the staking schedule.
According to the official lock-up schedule, each token recipient’s EIGEN quota will be unlocked by 4% per month starting in September 2025 and continuing until September 2027 until all employees and investors’ tokens are fully unlocked. EigenLayer clarified in its filing that “investors and early contributors will adhere to the lock-up schedule described above,” so any early sale would be a direct violation of these terms.
(The supply transparency of EigenLayer token EIGEN is questioned. Is there a reason why EIGEN cannot rise?)
EigenLayer’s role in the Ethereum ecosystem
EigenLayer is known for its groundbreaking “re-staking” model, a cryptoeconomic security framework that allows staked ETH to be used to support the security of various decentralized applications. The protocol plays an important role in enhancing the security and functionality of the Ethereum ecosystem, so any irregularities in its token distribution will attract widespread attention from the community.
However, the security framework provided by EigenLayer is still an insensible existence to the market; whether the market charm of the re-staking ecosystem can continue depends on whether there are further economic effects, or whether it is implemented and applied. The narrative develops.
This article Locked up EIGEN and was resold for 5.5 million mg, EigenLayer announced the results of the investigation first appeared on Chain News ABMedia.
