Swell Network is an ETH liquid staking protocol that offers both standard liquid staking (swETH) and restaked liquid staking (rswETH), the latter integrating with EigenLayer restaking to offer additional yield beyond base Ethereum staking rewards. Swell has grown to over $500M TVL through a points-based airdrop campaign that rewarded early adopters.
swETH and rswETH
swETH is Swell's standard non-rebasing ETH LST, appreciating in ETH value as staking rewards accumulate. rswETH is the restaked version: ETH deposited as rswETH is staked natively and simultaneously restaked on EigenLayer, opting into multiple AVSes to earn additional restaking rewards on top of base staking yield.
The rswETH yield is variable: base staking (~3.8%) plus EigenLayer AVS rewards (variable, currently 0.5–2% additional). As more AVSes launch and compete for EigenLayer restakers, rswETH yield could increase.
Swell L2
Swell has announced Swell L2 — an Ethereum L2 built using EigenLayer's rollup infrastructure with rswETH as the native gas and staking token. This creates a self-contained ecosystem where rswETH holders earn staking yield, restaking yield, and L2 sequencer fees simultaneously.
SWELL Points and Airdrop
Swell ran an extensive points campaign rewarding ETH depositors, rswETH holders, and DeFi users who deployed Swell LSTs in external protocols. The SWELL token airdrop based on these points was one of 2024's notable distributions, with restakers receiving additional allocations for the higher risk of rswETH.