a16z Crypto Invests $70 Million in EigenLayer for EigenCloud Launch

Written byCoin World
Tuesday, Jun 17, 2025 9:23 am ET2min read

a16z crypto, the blockchain-focused arm of Andreessen Horowitz, has made a significant investment of $70 million in EigenLayer's EIGEN tokens. This investment is aimed at supporting the launch of EigenCloud, a new developer platform for the Ethereum restaking project. This move follows a16z crypto's previous leadership in a $100 million Series B funding round for Eigen Labs, the core developer of EigenLayer, which was announced in February 2024. Earlier, Eigen Labs had secured a $50 million Series A funding round in March 2023, led by Blockchain Capital, with participation from

Ventures, Polychain Capital, and other investors.

Ali Yahya, General Partner at a16z crypto, highlighted the innovative potential of EigenLayer, stating that it is overcoming the technical limitations of blockchains to enable a new category of applications built on verifiable solutions. The launch of EigenCloud, which combines core services such as EigenDA for data, EigenVerify for dispute resolution, and EigenCompute for execution into a unified, programmable environment, marks a significant milestone. Built on EigenLayer and powered by the EIGEN token, EigenCloud allows developers to create trustless web2 applications with blockchain-grade verifiability.

EigenCloud extends verifiability to sectors such as AI, healthcare, and media, enabling offchain computation with onchain trust guarantees. Sreeram Kannan, CEO of Eigen Labs, emphasized that EigenCloud will facilitate the development of the next generation of disruptive, mass-market crypto apps, bridging

between what developers want to build onchain and what blockchains currently allow. The platform opens up opportunities for highly ambitious products like disintermediated digital marketplaces, onchain insurance, fully onchain games, automated adjudication, powerful prediction markets, and verifiable AI.

The EIGEN token is central to EigenCloud's offchain programmability, ensuring full verifiability. Stakers may benefit from future usage-based fees that support staking rewards and ecosystem growth. Joe Lubin, co-founder of Ethereum and CEO of Consensys, noted that EigenCloud represents a bold step towards an era where verifiability becomes a foundational building block of the internet. He praised Eigen Labs for expanding the possibilities on Ethereum and advancing the infrastructure for more trustworthy digital systems.

Eigen Labs is releasing the alpha version of EigenCloud this week, featuring major upgrades to EigenDA and a preview of EigenVerify, which enables slashing via EIGEN token forkability. The team has also shared a roadmap that includes new developer tools, expanded dispute options, and the upcoming EigenCompute primitive to simplify AVS deployment. Developer access will be rolled out in stages over the coming months.

EigenLayer allows users to re-stake ETH, including through liquid staking tokens, to secure third-party networks and actively validated services. The project's shared security layer reallocates staked ETH across multiple services beyond Ethereum. The team describes this process as "unlocking crypto's endgame," where crypto's verifiability is programmable for any developer building any application in any industry. With over 200 AVSs in development, EigenLayer claims to be the fastest-growing developer ecosystem in crypto, securing $2 billion in application value using $12 billion in restaked assets and having collectively raised over $500 million to build various tools and services.

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