Announcing ETHFI: The ether.fi Governance Token

ether.fi
5 min readMar 16, 2024

--

Introducing ETHFI

Quick Hits

  • 6% airdrop in Season 1
  • 5% airdrop in Season 2
  • Starting March 18 at 8a EST, users will have 90 days to claim their ETHFI at claim.ether.fi
  • Hold on to ETHFI to improve your StakeRank
  • Stay tuned for the DAO’s first prospective proposal: Token Value Accrual

Announcement

The ether.fi Foundation is thrilled to announce the launch of the ETHFI token, signaling the next major step in decentralization of the ether.fi protocol. As the first noncustodial, delegated staking protocol, ether.fi is the leader in liquid restaking tokens, with wide adoption throughout the Ethereum ecosystem.

The ETHFI token launch empowers ether.fi’s growing ecosystem to participate in governance and chart the path forward for the protocol.

Ether.fi has already achieved 800k+ ETH in TVL, and has over 250k wallets currently staking ETH on the protocol. eETH, a rebasing ERC-20 liquid staking token, is the primary product of ether.fi. Holding eETH allows users to gain native ETH staking rewards, ether.fi points, and EigenLayer points, all while being able to participate and earn additional rewards in other DeFi protocols on Ethereum and compatible L2s.

As a portion of protocol and re-staking rewards are directed toward the DAO treasury, the ETHFI token now plays a vital role in controlling and governing this treasury, and the future of the protocol at large.

If you are new to ether.fi, you can learn more about the protocol at the following links:

The Token & Airdrop

ETHFI

The ETHFI token has been fully minted with a fixed supply of 1 billion. There will be no further issuance. Some key details below:

  • Token Name: ether.fi (ETHFI)
  • Max Token Supply: 1,000,000,000 ETHFI
  • Initial Circulating Supply: 115,200,000 ETHFI (11.52% of max token supply)
  • Users can view their eligbibility now at claim.ether.fi

Season 1 of the ETHFI airdrop consists of 6% total of the full token supply with the initial distribution opening on March 18. Users will have 90 days to claim their ETHFI at claim.ether.fi. Any unclaimed ETHFI tokens will be added to the Season 2 airdrop.

The eligibility for the ETHFI token airdrop has been determined by a user’s contribution to the ether.fi development and growth over time, including stakers and ether.fan holders who have been with us on the journey from the start. Whale wallets will have a 3 month vest for their tokens, everyone else can claim them instantly.

The following criteria was used to determine eligibility:

  • You were part of the Early Adopter Program
  • You are a holder of an Ether.Fan NFT
  • You are a solo staker
  • You are a holder of eETH or weETH
  • You hold a position in a participating eETH or weETH DeFi pool or vault
  • You unlocked one or more ether.fi badges
  • You referred one or more friends to ether.fi

The airdrop is backwards-looking and the snapshot for eligible activity was taken on 03–15–2024 0:01 UTC, marking the end of Season 1 and the start of Season 2.

The Season 2 airdrop will be 5% of token supply. Dates of Season 2 are March 15 -> ???

Tokenomics

The breakdown of token allocation are below:

The allocations aim to promote long term, deep engagement in key governance decisions toward the continued success of the ether.fi protocol. This decentralization process ensures that ether.fi will be governed and stewarded by a committed group of contributors, collaborating to ensure that ether.fi is appropriately resourced to achieve its mission and goals for many years to come.

All tokens will be distributed by the end of 2030.

If you’re looking to dive deeper into the Tokenomics, please read our docs — https://etherfi.gitbook.io/etherfi/governance

Utility of ETHFI

The governance token ETHFI gives community members a direct mechanism to contribute to the protocol and influence the growth of the ether.fi ecosystem. ETHFI token holders will have the opportunity to meaningfully participate in key decisions, such as:

  • The ether.fi Grants Program, which will launch to support the long term growth of the ecosystem
  • Protocol longevity, vision, and key economic parameters, such as protocol fees, controller, contract and various other protocol upgrades
  • Software developer contributor permissions and greenlighting of node operators that run ETH nodes on behalf of the protocol
  • Token staking, to earn additional incentives by providing permissionless staking services (such as running an Ethereum node)
  • Treasury diversification activities

Stay tuned for the DAO’s first prospective proposal: Token Value Accrual

In addition to governance, ETHFI will be value accruing and you can hold on to ETHFI to improve your StakeRank, more on this soon.

The ether.fi Foundation

The ether.fi Foundation exists to oversee and carry out the decisions of the token holders, and to steward the treasury and protocol.

The Foundation will be accountable, and will provide regular transparency reports, to token holders. The ether.fi Foundation will be governed by its constitutional documents, which will be shared in a subsequent post.

IMPORTANT NOTE: Please be alert for scams around token claims, including fake links and accounts impersonating Ether.fi. There is no public sale of ETHFI tokens. Make sure to follow the information in our official channels only that are listed on ether.fi. For more information, please refer to our terms and conditions. Note persons from the US or sanctioned jurisdictions or other excluded are not eligible to claim.

--

--

ether.fi

Decentralized non-custodial liquid staking protocol