Restaking
Renzo
renzoprotocol.com ↗REZ market data →
Also known as Renzo Protocol, ezETH, pzETH, ezSOL, ezBTC, REZ, ezREZ, RenzoAI
renzo protocol
Renzo is a liquid restaking protocol: deposit ETH or stETH and receive ezETH, which is restaked on EigenLayer and earns staking plus restaking rewards, minus a 10% fee on the restaking part. It peaked above $4 billion in May 2024 and held about $126 million on 27 September 2026, now alongside managed vaults and tokens for Solana, Bitcoin and Symbiotic.
Our read
Renzo is convenient if you want restaking exposure without choosing operators yourself, and its ezETH is still widely integrated. The April 2024 crash is the lesson to keep: when the exit through the protocol is closed, the market price is the only price. Withdrawals are open now but take 7 to 15 days, so plan any exit ahead of time rather than during a sell-off.
Key facts
- Total value locked
- ≈$125.5 million across 13 chains, about $90 million on Ethereum
- Sep 2026 · DefiLlama ↗
- ezETH fee
- 10% of restaking rewards, split 50/50 between treasury and node operators; EigenLayer rewards passed through
- Sep 2026 · Renzo Docs ↗
- Withdrawal time
- About 7 days if the buffer has assets, 10–15 days if it is empty
- Sep 2026 · Renzo Docs ↗
- First REZ buyback
- 127.1 million REZ bought with protocol revenue, 114.4 million burned (1.14% of supply)
- Nov 2025 · Renzo Blog ↗
What is ezETH and what does it cost?
ezETH is Renzo's receipt for ETH or stETH restaked on EigenLayer. It does not rebase; its value rises against the deposited assets as rewards compound. Renzo picks the operators and the services (AVSs) they secure, which is the convenience and also the thing you are trusting (ezETH docs).
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| Fee | 10% of restaking rewards (half treasury, half node operators) |
| EigenLayer rewards | Passed through in full |
| Withdrawal, buffer funded | About 7 days |
| Withdrawal, buffer empty | 10–15 days (9–10 day beacon exit, 14-day EigenLayer delay, 3-day Renzo buffer) |
| Chains with ezETH | Ethereum plus L2s including Arbitrum, Base, Linea, Blast and BNB Chain |
Timings come from Renzo's withdrawal docs. The same suite now includes pzETH (Symbiotic), ezSOL (Jito), ezBTC and ezEIGEN, each with its own restaking layer and risks.
The ezETH depeg of April 2024
On 24 April 2024 Renzo published the REZ token allocation. Holders who had deposited for points were disappointed and rushed to sell ezETH, but the protocol had no withdrawal function yet. The only exit was the DEX market, and ezETH fell as much as 78% below its backing on some venues, according to LlamaRisk's later review for Aave (Aave forum). Leveraged positions that used ezETH as collateral were liquidated.
The backing was never missing; the price recovered within days. Renzo enabled withdrawals for ETH, stETH and wBETH in June 2024. ezETH dipped again on 5 August 2024 with every other liquid staking token during the yen carry-trade unwind, a market-wide move rather than a Renzo event.
We found no ezETH depeg in 2025. The April 2024 event is the one lenders still cite when they set higher liquidation penalties for ezETH.
Renzo TVL and what it is doing now
Renzo held about $125.5 million on 27 September 2026, 3% of its May 2024 peak of $4.05 billion (DefiLlama). It now presents itself as an "institutional-grade" platform with three lines: the Staking Suite (ezETH and siblings), Reserve Vaults (a managed vault that started with Superstate's USCC fund in December 2025, a USDC vault and an ezETH loop on Compound) and an Enterprise Suite.
REZ governance approved spending up to 100% of protocol revenue to buy back up to 10% of REZ supply between November 2025 and May 2026; the first round burned 114.4 million REZ (Renzo blog). Restaking itself is being repackaged for specific buyers: in July 2025 Opolis used a Renzo "restaking bond" to back a member health-insurance pool, and in December 2025 pzETH, the Symbiotic-restaked token, began underwriting institutional borrowing on Cap. In February 2026 co-founder James Poole released an MCP server so AI agents can read Renzo vault data.
Incident log
1 entry · repaid, confirmed: 0 of 1 where user funds were at stake
Depeg
ezETH depeg while protocol withdrawals were not yet available
After the REZ tokenomics announcement, holders sold ezETH on DEXs because the protocol offered no redemption. ezETH traded as much as 78% below its backing on some venues and triggered liquidations on lending markets that accepted it as collateral. Backing was intact and the price recovered within days.
Repayment unknownHolders who kept ezETH were not harmed once the price recovered; we found no record of Renzo compensating users who were liquidated or sold at the low. Losses were not quantified by any source we found.
In our ratings
This page is the record. The scores sit on the review cards, next to the evidence and the weights they came from.
Compare Renzo with
ether.fiRestaking · Cayman Islandsether.fi is a Cayman-registered Ethereum staking protocol behind eETH and weETH that now also runs the Cash card, its main revenue source in 2026.
Puffer FinanceRestaking · Cayman IslandsPuffer Finance is a Cayman-based native restaking protocol on EigenLayer issuing pufETH; node operators need a 2 ETH bond plus Validator Tickets.
LidoLiquid staking · 2020 · Cayman IslandsLido is Ethereum's largest liquid staking protocol: deposit ETH, get stETH. About 9.8M stETH is outstanding; LDO holders govern with a stETH-holder veto.
Rocket PoolLiquid staking · 2016 · AustraliaRocket Pool is an Ethereum liquid staking protocol built in Australia: stake ETH for rETH, or run a validator yourself with a 4 ETH bond since Saturn 1.
Frequently asked questions
Who runs Renzo?+
Renzo is developed by a team whose co-founder James Poole speaks for the project; governance runs through REZ holders and delegates, with a 12.44% token allocation to a Renzo foundation.
How long does it take to withdraw ezETH?+
About 7 days when Renzo's withdrawal buffer is funded and 10 to 15 days when it has to exit validators first.
What fee does Renzo take?+
10% of restaking rewards, split between the treasury and node operators.
Why did ezETH crash in April 2024?+
Holders sold after the REZ allocation was published, and with no withdrawal function the DEX price was the only exit; it fell up to 78% on some venues.
Where can I see the REZ price and supply?+
On our [Renzo coin page](/market/renzo).
What changed
- Profile published.
Compiled by
Blockchain Security Researcher · September 27, 2026
We have no commercial relationship with Renzo and earn nothing from any link on this page. Every fact above carries the date it was true and a link to where it comes from; if one is out of date, the contact page reaches the editor who keeps this file.