> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.anchorage.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.
# EigenLayer restaking
> Restake ETH and EIGEN tokens with EigenLayer using Anchorage Digital.
EigenLayer is a protocol built on Ethereum that introduces restaking, a new primitive in cryptoeconomic security. This primitive enables the reuse of ETH on the consensus layer.
Users that stake ETH natively or with a liquid staking token (LST) can opt-in to EigenLayer smart contracts to restake their ETH or LST and extend cryptoeconomic security to additional applications on the network to earn additional rewards.
## EIGEN restaking with EigenLayer
In addition to EIGEN, Anchorage Digital supports restaking for a selection of other liquid staking tokens (LSTs) with EigenLayer.
### Add EigenLayer to your account's connected apps allowlist
In order for your Anchorage Digital wallet to be allowed to interact with the EigenLayer dApp, one of your account administrators must first add EigenLayer to your account's connected apps allowlist.
See [Adding apps to your approved list](/knowledge-base/platform/users/on-chain-interactions) to complete this step.
### Restake and delegate EIGEN
This process requires three on-chain transactions:
1. Approve EIGEN for use by the EigenLayer smart contracts
2. Deposit/Restake EIGEN to the EigenLayer smart contracts
3. Delegate your restaked balance to the operator of your choice
Each on-chain transaction will be initiated directly from the EigenLayer dApp.
Use WalletConnect to establish a connection between your desired Anchorage Digital wallet and the EigenLayer dApp webpage. Please reference Connect iOS app to external apps for instructions on using WalletConnect.
The first time a wallet establishes a connection with the EigenLayer dApp, you will be presented with the dApp's Terms of Service to sign. Upon pressing the **Sign** button, your Anchorage Digital wallet will automatically sign this off-chain transaction. There is no quorum approval needed to complete this step. Please allow a few minutes for your Anchorage Digital wallet to sign and return the signature response back to the dApp.
You may monitor the status of this operation in the Activity section of your Anchorage Digital iOS app. Once complete, the EigenLayer dApp interface will close the Terms of Service popup and allow you to proceed.
Continue by selecting EIGEN from the list of assets. Select the button labeled **Restake** to initiate the first operation.
Once initiated, an operation titled **Approve \[TOKEN]** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval. Once the Approve transaction has been completed, you may proceed to restaking EIGEN.
From the EigenLayer interface, select the button labeled **Restake** (same as before) to initiate the operation.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Restake** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Restake transaction has been completed, your EIGEN balance will display as **Restaked** within the Anchorage Digital iOS app. You may now proceed to delegating EIGEN.
From the EigenLayer interface, navigate to the Operator page and select any available operator to open their delegation page. Select the button labeled **Delegate** to initiate the operation.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Delegate** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Delegate transaction has been completed, your EIGEN balance will display as **Restaked Delegated** within the Anchorage Digital iOS app. Your tokens are now eligible to earn rewards.
This EigenLayer delegation step is applied at the wallet-level. This means that any other tokens restaked to EigenLayer from this wallet will inherit this same delegation status, until you undelegate from the operator.
### Claim rewards
Rewards in EigenLayer come from actively validated services (AVSs), each of which control the distribution schedule, weight, and token type of their rewards. Once you have accrued rewards, visit the Dashboard screen of the EigenLayer interface and select the button labeled **Claim rewards**.
You will be presented with a selection menu of which reward tokens you would like to claim. You can either claim for all tokens, or select specific tokens to claim. Once you have made your selection, press the button labeled **Claim \[X] tokens**.
Anchorage Digital will only permit claiming of reward tokens that are actively supported for custody on the platform. This means that you may be delayed or prevented from claiming some rewards while restaking to EigenLayer from Anchorage Digital.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Claim Rewards** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
### Unstake EIGEN
From the EigenLayer interface, select the button labeled **Unstake** to initiate the operation. You may unstake your full position or a partial amount.
EigenLayer contracts enforce a multi-day withdrawal delay for all unstaked tokens. Unstaking does not auto-claim any accrued rewards. It is recommended to first unstake, then claim rewards as some rewards may be distributed after unstaking.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Unstake** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Unstake transaction has been completed, your EIGEN balance will display as **Unstaking** within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for several days.
Once the escrow period completes, your unstaked EIGEN balance will become withdrawable. From the EigenLayer interface, select the button labeled **Withdraw** to initiate the final step.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Withdraw** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Withdraw transaction has been completed, your EIGEN will return to the **Available balance** state within the Anchorage Digital iOS app.
## ETH restaking with EigenLayer
To participate in native ETH restaking with EigenLayer, complete four on-chain transactions:
1. Create an EigenPod
2. Stake ETH for EigenLayer
3. Activate staked balance for restaking
4. Delegate to an operator
Aside from step 2 ("Stake ETH for EigenLayer"), which is performed from within the Anchorage Digital iOS app, all steps related to EigenLayer restaking are initiated directly from the EigenLayer dApp at [https://app.eigenlayer.xyz/](https://app.eigenlayer.xyz/)
### Prerequisites
In order for your Anchorage Digital wallet to be allowed to interact with the EigenLayer dApp, one of your account administrators must first add EigenLayer to your account's Connected Apps allowlist. See [Adding apps to your approved list](/knowledge-base/platform/users/on-chain-interactions) to complete this step.
### Native ETH restaking steps
Use WalletConnect to establish a connection between your desired Anchorage Digital wallet and the EigenLayer dApp webpage. Reference Connect iOS app to external apps for instructions on using WalletConnect.
The first time a wallet establishes a connection with the EigenLayer dApp, you will be presented with the dApp's Terms of Service to sign. Upon pressing the **Sign** button, your Anchorage Digital wallet will automatically sign this off-chain signature. There is no quorum approval needed. Please allow a few minutes for the signature to be returned to the dApp.
You may monitor the status of this operation in the Activity section of your Anchorage Digital iOS app. Once complete, the EigenLayer dApp interface will close the Terms of Service popup.
Continue by selecting **Natively Staked Ether** from the list of assets. Select the button labeled **Create EigenPod**.
Once initiated, an operation titled **Create EigenPod** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the transaction has been completed, you should see the EigenPod address display within the EigenLayer dApp.
Immediately following the completion of this operation, the Anchorage Digital iOS app will automatically initiate another operation to add this new EigenPod address as a "Trusted Smart Contract" for your wallet. This is an important security step that ensures your wallet is permitted to interact only with known valid smart contracts.
Review this operation to confirm the EigenPod address is correct. Once this **Add Trusted Smart Contract** operation is complete, you may proceed to the next step.
Within the Anchorage Digital iOS app, navigate to the same wallet that was used for creating the EigenPod in the previous step. Select the **Stake with EigenLayer** button.
Anchorage Digital will automatically detect that an EigenPod exists for this wallet, and will set the withdrawal address for this stake operation to be equal to the wallet's EigenPod address.
Double-check the EigenPod address shown in the iOS app matches the EigenPod address shown for the wallet on the EigenLayer dApp interface.
Tap **Continue** to review and endorse the operation.
Once the Stake ETH transaction has been completed, your staked ETH will move through the activation process. Once your validators are active and your staked ETH balance displays as **Staked** in the Anchorage Digital iOS app (several hours later), you can proceed to step 3.
Return to the EigenLayer dApp interface. You should see your staked ETH balance as **Awaiting Restake**. Select the **Restake** button.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Restake ETH** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
If you decide to stake more ETH with EigenLayer through the same wallet, you will need to complete this Restake step again to activate the newly staked balance for restaking.
You may now proceed to step 4, "Delegate to an Operator."
From the EigenLayer dApp interface, navigate to the Operator page and select the operator to which you would like to delegate. Select the **Delegate** button.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Delegate** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Delegate transaction has been completed, your ETH balance is now eligible to collect EigenLayer rewards.
This EigenLayer delegation step is applied at the wallet-level. This means that any other tokens restaked to EigenLayer from this wallet will inherit this same delegation status. A wallet can only be delegated to one operator at a time.
### Claim rewards
When participating in native ETH restaking with EigenLayer, a wallet will accrue two different types of rewards:
**AVS rewards**
AVS rewards in EigenLayer come from actively validated services (AVSs), each of which control the distribution schedule, weight, and token type of their rewards. Once you have accrued rewards, visit the Dashboard page of the EigenLayer interface and select the button labeled **Claim rewards**.
You will be presented with a selection menu of reward tokens that can be claimed. You can either claim all tokens, or select specific tokens to claim. Once you have made your selection, press the button labeled **Claim \[X] tokens**.
Anchorage Digital will only permit claiming of reward tokens that are actively supported for custody on the platform. This means that you may be delayed or prevented from claiming some rewards while restaking to EigenLayer from Anchorage Digital.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Claim Rewards** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
**Consensus layer rewards**
Consensus layer rewards come from your native ETH validators. These are the same rewards you would collect from regular ETH staking, but now they accrue to your EigenPod. You have two options for handling these accrued rewards:
* **Restake rewards** — From the EigenLayer dApp interface, select **Restake** to begin a two-step process to convert your rewards into actively restaked shares. The operations are titled **EigenPod Start Checkpoint** and **EigenPod Complete Checkpoint**.
* **Unstake rewards** — From the EigenLayer dApp interface, select **Queue withdrawal** to begin a two-step process. The first operation will begin a 7-day unbonding period, and the second operation will complete the process by moving your unstaked ETH balance from EigenLayer into your Available balance.
### Unstake and withdraw native ETH
Fully unstaking your ETH from Ethereum validators and from the EigenLayer protocol is a three-step process.
The Ethereum and EigenLayer protocols enforce unbonding periods of several days between each of these three steps.
Within the Anchorage Digital iOS app, navigate to the wallet that is staking ETH with EigenLayer. Select the **Unstake** button.
Enter the number of validators you would like to unstake. Tap **Continue** to review and endorse the operation.
Once the Unstake transaction has been completed, your ETH will go through a 1–10 day unbonding period before moving to your EigenPod.
Return to the EigenLayer dApp interface. From the Restake page, find the Withdrawals section to view your ETH balance that is "Available to Queue."
Select the button labeled **Queue Withdrawal** and input the amount you wish to queue for withdrawal.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Unstake** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Unstake transaction has been completed, your ETH balance will display as **Unstaking** within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for the duration of the escrow period (\~7 days). Once the escrow period completes, your ETH balance will become withdrawable.
From the EigenLayer interface, select the button labeled **Withdraw** to initiate the final step.
Once initiated, an operation titled **EigenLayer Withdraw** will appear within the Anchorage Digital iOS app for review and quorum approval.
Once the Withdraw transaction has been completed, your ETH will return to the **Available balance** state within the Anchorage Digital iOS app.