Ethereum Researchers Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist Step Down From EigenLayer Advisory Roles

Two high-profile Ethereum researchers, Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist, have stepped down from their advisory roles at EigenLayer, a restaking platform.

Two high-profile Ethereum researchers have stepped down from advisory roles at EigenLayer, a restaking platform, to focus entirely on the Ethereum base layer, an announcement on X revealed today.

Justin Drake and Dankrad Feist both left the positions due to tensions over conflict of interest and token compensation.

As reported earlier this year, both researchers were revealed to be advising EigenLayer, which ranks among the top three DeFi projects on Ethereum by Total Value Locked (TVL), as per DefiLlama.

The advisory roles and hefty compensation packages for advisors sparked concerns about the impartiality of Ethereum’s core contributors.

According to Drake, his contract included “millions of dollars of tokens vesting over three years.”

“It is clear that relying on culture and individual judgment has not been sufficient, and we have been working on a formal policy to address this problem for a while now,” he added.

“This personal policy goes above and beyond the recent EF-wide conflict of interest policy… because I want to signal commitment to neutrality.”

EigenLayer has also been in the news for its token airdrop and ongoing security issues.

The platform launched its Season 2 “stakedrop” campaign, a massive airdrop of 86 million EIGEN tokens, roughly 5.1% of its total supply.

The airdrop is divided into three primary allocations:

stETH stakers (snapshot: 2023-08-14, 12:00 UTC)

staked wstETH stakers (snapshot: 2023-08-15, 00:00 UTC)

EigenLayer stakers (snapshot: 2023-08-15, 12:00 UTC)

EigenLayer captured the airdrop snapshot on August 15, and claims opened on September 17.

However, the platform encountered security troubles, including an unauthorized sale of 1.67 million EIGEN tokens, each valued at roughly $3.3.

This sale raised immediate questions about violations of EigenLayer’s lockup policy, which prohibits current and former employees from selling or staking tokens before September 2025.

The wallet used in the sale was linked to EigenLayer’s Gnosis Safe, which adds to the confusion surrounding internal controls.

This led EigenLayer to reexamine its security measures and address weak points in its compliance protocols.

On October 18, a security breach resulted in the theft of approximately $5.7 million.

An attacker used address spoofing to mimic an investor, bypassing security to siphon funds.

In response, EigenLayer has been reviewing and tightening its security protocols to prevent future breaches.

The token unlocked on October 1, instantly propelling it into the top 100 cryptocurrencies by market cap.

EIGEN’s fully diluted valuation surged to around $7.2 billion, with the token trading at approximately $3.59.

However, the unauthorized sales and hacking incidents have made the market skittish, with price swings and uncertainty dominating trading, fueled by questions over the platform’s internal security and governance.

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