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By Margaux Nijkerk, AI Boost|Edited by Aoyon Ashraf
Aug 27, 2025, 2:00 p.m.
- Symbiotic, a universal staking protocol and EigenLayer competitor, has introduced External Rewards, a feature designed to let networks offer their own token-based incentives to stakers and node operators.
- The new feature, introduced on Wednesday, marks a step in Symbiotic’s push to make shared security a default feature across modular blockchain ecosystems.
Symbiotic, a universal staking protocol and EigenLayer competitor, has introduced External Rewards, a feature designed to let networks offer their own token-based incentives to stakers and node operators.
The new feature, introduced on Wednesday, marks a step in Symbiotic’s push to make shared security a default feature across modular blockchain ecosystems.
STORY CONTINUES BELOW
External Rewards gives protocols a way to distribute native tokens or points directly through the Symbiotic platform, layering these incentives alongside Symbiotic Points — the protocol’s economic coordination mechanism. The goal is to help networks bootstrap security, attract capital and evolve incentive models without rebuilding core infrastructure. All rewards appear in one interface, giving stakers and contributors a comprehensive view of their economic participation across networks.
“This launch is a pivotal moment for Symbiotic and the broader shared security ecosystem,” said Misha Putiatin, the co-founder of Symbiotic, in a press release shared with CoinDesk. “Shared security is something we’ve been steadily building toward, and external rewards are proof of that work compounding. Each new primitive or feature we ship strengthens the foundation for others to build on.”
Several protocols are already using External Rewards. Hyperlane, the interoperability protocol, is rewarding stakers securing its cross-chain Warp Routes with $HYPER tokens.
Symbiotic’s universal staking framework currently supports everything from liquid restaked assets like ETH to hybrid and native staking models. By unifying rewards and security incentives under one platform, Symbiotic wants to become a cryptoeconomic coordination layer for a modular ecosystem.
“The launch of external rewards builds on Symbiotic’s mission to make Universal Staking the cryptoeconomic coordination layer for modular, multichain infrastructure,” the team wrote in a press release.
Read more: Symbiotic Launches ‘Relay’ to Bring Secure Staking Across Chains
Disclaimer: Parts of this article were generated with the assistance from AI tools and reviewed by our editorial team to ensure accuracy and adherence to our standards. For more information, see CoinDesk’s full AI Policy.
Margaux is a DeFi reporter at CoinDesk, focusing on the rapidly evolving decentralized finance landscape with a particular emphasis on the Ethereum and Solana ecosystems. Prior to that, Margaux was on CoinDesk’s Tech & Protocols team covering the Ethereum protocol and L2s. A graduate of Johns Hopkins and Emory universities, she holds a master’s degree in International Affairs and Economics. She holds BTC and ETH above CoinDesk’s disclosure threshold of $1,000.
“AI Boost” indicates a generative text tool, typically an AI chatbot, contributed to the article. In each and every case, the article was edited, fact-checked and published by a human. Read more about CoinDesk’s AI Policy.
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