Over the past week, the TVL (Total Value Locked) of the EigenLayer staking protocol has grown by almost 180%, enabling it to surpass Uniswap and enter the top five largest DeFi protocols. According to DefiLlama, EigenLayer's TVL currently stands at $5.8 billion, which is a 177% increase compared to the previous week.

This impressive growth was fueled by the platform's launch of its deposit vault on February 5th, which saw the number of Ethereum on the platform rise from 941 thousand to 2.3 million tokens, representing about 2% of the total circulating ETH supply.

Among the largest stakers on the platform are Puffer Finance, Tron Network founder Justin Sun, Eigenpie, and Kelp DAO. The EigenLayer protocol offers a new staking concept, allowing users to utilize their already staked ETH tokens to secure other elements of the underlying network, thus enhancing the decentralization of ETH and providing market participants with an opportunity to earn additional income.

The increased interest in EigenLayer and the rise in the price of Ethereum, currently trading at $2,512, coincided with a sharp surge in activity surrounding the protocol, highlighting the potential of staking as a tool to increase value and security in the Ethereum ecosystem.