Re:Staking Weekly #13
SaaS-ify Crypto, Jito TipRouter's $7.3m Annual Rewards, and EigenLayer's AI Playbook
Welcome to Issue #13 of Re:Staking Weekly! 👋
Not sure if you noticed, but an increasing number of SaaS-like networks are reaching critical scale in crypto, with many leveraging restaking to bootstrap their networks.
This week, we explore why crypto's SaaS-ification trend could signal another wave of industry growth, diving into Jito's TipRouter's rewards distribution mechanisms, EigenLayer's AI playbook, and more.
Let's dive in! 🚀
SaaS-ify Crypto
In just two weeks, I've witnessed compelling evidence that a maturing, modular, SaaS-like crypto future is taking shape, with many developments emerging from the restaking ecosystem.
This is the strongest signal I've seen since the modular movement first coined its name from Celestia following DeFi summer in 2021-2022. Evidence is pouring in — from Earnifi (an Opacity ecosystem project), Predicate, Eigen's agent explainer, to Jito's Tip Router — all pointing to a common thread:
Networks are increasingly specializing in single use cases, focusing their resources and development on specific problems.
These networks are adopting highly specialized consensus and network structures that operate independently of traditional block production.
This evolution makes perfect sense when we look at Web2's progression. These niche networks can optimize their architecture and consensus mechanisms for specific use cases, creating network efficiency and security that monolithic networks (like Ethereum) simply cannot match. Moreover, these specialized networks can easily bootstrap services to help onboard clients — something monolithic networks, constrained by low-level implementation, struggle to achieve.
Jito's TipRouter
Last week, we covered how Jito's flagship NCN (Node Consensus Network, essentially an AVS or node network) will start earning impressive fees for its restakers and operators.
TipRouter, analogous to EigenDA for EigenLayer, is Jito's homegrown network. Its origin story perfectly illustrates how product-centric networks emerge.
Before venturing into restaking, Jito's core product was Jito-Solana, a Solana node validator client enabling users to submit transactions with priority tips for faster inclusion. These tips, totaling an impressive $2.5 billion annually to date, were distributed centrally (by the Jito Foundation) between the Jito treasury and Jito-Solana operators.
TipRouter decentralizes the process. According to JIP-8, using $2.3 billion in annual tip fees as a reference, the network aims to maintain a security ratio of approximately 45x — with $500 million in TipRouter’s economic security and roughly $14.8 million in tips processed per epoch. Out of the $2.3 billion in collected fees, 0.03% (about $7.3 million per year) is used to reward the JitoSOL and JTO restakers, which translates to a 0.68% reward rate (rewards rate goes higher with lowered TVL).
This development is significant for two reasons:
Following the SaaS playbook, this demonstrates how ambitious teams can decentralize their stack by involving users and community, creating a powerful force multiplier compared to centralized approaches.
It provides a crucial benchmark for network security fees that other projects can reference — a vital data point for the future rewards generation paradigm from verifiable, idiosyncratic networks.
Read more:
What is Jito TipRouter
Great technical write up about TipRouter NCN (JIP-8)
News Bites
EigenLayer has published its Verifiable Agents explainer, detailing its plan and first principles for the agent ecosystem leveraging restaking and restaked AVS. Read more here.
EigenLayer’s AI AVS Categories: A modular stack where potential AVSs can be built to power AI agents.
Earnify, a project utilizing Opacity Network (an EigenLayer restaked zkTLS network), has hit the App Store and ranked #5 in the finance category. This app allows college students to borrow up to $200 instantly with private zkTLS verification of their pay stubs, etc.
Colederm explains RiscZero's Boundless ZK prover marketplace and how restaking works in the context of its prover network.
Watch Sreeram and Lucas's discussion on Solana vs. Ethereum restaking.
Transaction policy AVS Predicate has partnered with TRM Labs to enforce TRM's risk scores across smart contracts, solver networks, and routers — all before funds move.
That's it for this week's newsletter! As always, feel free to send us a DM or comment directly below with your thoughts or questions.
If you want to catch up with the latest news in the restaking world, give our curated X list a follow!
See you next week and thanks for reading,