The Liquidity Wars — How ETH Restaking Could Reshape Stablecoin Collateral

[chainsniff]

Stablecoins are the lifeblood of crypto. But what backs them is quietly shifting.

Traditionally:

USDT: cash + T-bills

USDC: treasuries + bank reserves

But now we’re entering a new phase: ETH restaking + LRTs (liquid restaking tokens) as collateral.

Why it matters:

Restaking platforms (EigenLayer, Karak, Symbiotic) are sucking up ETH at massive scale.

Liquid restaking tokens (like ezETH, rsETH) are becoming DeFi’s new Lego blocks.

If stablecoins start using LRTs as collateral, the line between “money” and “staking yield” blurs.

This creates two risks:

Liquidity concentration → If too much ETH is locked in restaking, stablecoin redemptions could trigger cascading liquidations.

Correlation risk → If the staking economy wobbles, stablecoins tied to it could destabilize.

But the upside?
A native crypto-backed dollar that isn’t reliant on US Treasuries — a true decentralized reserve asset.

The question is:
Will stablecoins backed by ETH restaking become crypto’s “shadow dollars”… or the next systemic risk waiting to happen?