About

Kelp DAO is an Ethereum staking and EigenLayer native restaking solution. Kelp DAO participates in EigenLayer by pointing its Ethereum validators’ withdrawal credentials to EigenPods. In doing so, Kelp DAO enables ETH tokenholders that do not have the 32 ETH required to operate a validator node to not only stake ETH on Ethereum but also to restake ETH to EigenLayer to validate and secure modules built on EigenLayer, such as consensus protocols and data availability layers (litepaper pg. 4).

To participate, native ETH can be staked using the Kelp DAO application to receive ERC-20 rsETH, a non-rebasing liquid restaking token (LRT), at the prevailing exchange rate. As a non-rebasing token, the exchange rate between rsETH and ETH gradually increases as ETH staking rewards accumulate. It is also worth noting that Kelp DAO supports liquid staking tokens ETHx, stETH, and sfrxETH to receive rsETH when EigenLayer LST deposit caps are lifted. Staking-supported LSTs were last available from Feb. 5 to Feb. 9, 2024, after which EigenLayer reinstated its deposit caps for LSTs.

History

Amitej Gajjala and Dheeraj Borra founded Kelp DAO, which was first introduced in November 2023 to build a liquid restaking protocol on Ethereum “to unlock liquidity, DeFi, and higher rewards for restaked assets.”

• On Nov. 22, 2023, the Kelp DAO team released the beta version of its application on testnet.
• On Dec. 12, 2023, Kelp DAO’s Early Queue launched, allowing users to deposit liquid staking tokens such as stETH and ETHx.
• On Jan. 3, 2024, the Kelp DAO dashboard was released for users to track earned EigenLayer Points and Kelp Miles (Kelp DAO loyalty points).
• On Jan. 19, 2024, the Kelp referral program launched, allowing users to earn Kelp Miles for referrals. Also, in January 2024, Kelp DAO initiated support for earning Kelp Miles and EigenLayer Points when supplying rsETH on supported third-party applications, including Uniswap and Curve.
• On Feb. 1, 2024, the Kelp DAO team announced rewards for rsETH liquidity provision on Polygon zkEVM.
• On Feb. 14, 2024, the Kelp DAO team launched support for staking native ETH to receive rsETH. On Feb. 15, 2024, the Kelp DAO team announced rewards for rsETH liquidity provision on Arbitrum.
• On Feb. 28, 2024, the Kelp DAO team launched KEP, its EigenLayer Points reward token, which is claimable via the Kelp DAO application.