Justin Sun Deposits $480M of ETH to Restaking Protocol Ether.Fi

• The 120,000 ether deposited was acquired in February, when ETH was worth around $2,800.

• Ether.Fi is nearing $3 billion in TVL ahead of its governance token release later this month.

A wallet tagged as belonging to Tron founder Justin Sun deposited 120,000 ether (ETH) worth $480 million to liquid restaking protocol Ether.Fi, according to blockchain data.

The protocol, which raised $23 million last month ahead of announcing the release of its native token, is now nearing $3 billion in total value locked, DefiLlama data show. Ether.Fi also recently announced a $600 million deal with the Omni Network to help secure the protocol and the EigenLayer ecosystem as a whole. EigenLayer is a decentralized restaking protocol on the Ethereum blockchain.

The wallet began withdrawing ether from Binance in February, when prices were around $2,800. They have since risen to about $3,900, according to CoinDesk data.

Liquid restaking involves staking ether, which helps secure Ethereum, in return for a yield and often also loyalty points that can eventually be converted into a token airdrop. In return for the staked ether, restaking protocols like Ether.Fi distribute a liquid restaking token, in this case eETH, which is pegged to ether’s price. The token can be used on other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols to earn additional yield.

Sun is an active participant in the DeFi sector. Last year he helped avert a liquidity crisis on Curve Finance by purchasing $2.3 million worth of CRV tokens in light of a bad debt situation tied to Curve founder Michael Egorov.

Justin Sun did not immediately respond to CoinDesk’s request for comment.