ETHZilla to deploy about $47 million in ether to Puffer’s liquid restaking protocol

ETHZilla Corporation (ticker ETHZ) has announced plans to deploy approximately 10,600 ETH, valued at roughly $47 million, to Puffer, a liquid restaking protocol that the company expects will enhance yields on its corporate Ethereum treasury.

ETHZilla said it chose Puffer for its "2 ETH validator bond," a mechanism designed to provide active insurance against validator failures or malicious behavior.

"Deploying to Puffer advances our strategy of generating meaningful cash flow from Ethereum," Chairman and CEO McAndrew Rudisill said, framing the partnership as part of ETHZilla's push to pair institutional risk controls with DeFi-native yield.

Puffer is also building vertically across a liquid restaking token for capital efficiency, a Unifi-based rollup for composability, and a Preconf AVS for high-throughput settlement, according to Thursday's announcement. DefiLlama shows the protocol currently has about $172 million in total value locked.

The Peter Thiel-backed ETHZilla has leaned into restaking as a treasury strategy this month. On Sept. 2, the company said it would deploy $100 million of ETH with EtherFi, another liquid restaking protocol, to generate higher returns while contributing to Ethereum's security.

ETHZilla has also scaled its ether holdings and corporate actions in recent weeks. Earlier this month, the firm named Executive Chairman McAndrew Rudisill as CEO and disclosed 102,246 ETH on its balance sheet, along with cash, bringing its Ethereum treasury to nearly $500 million at the time following a Cumberland financing deal. In August, ETHZilla authorized a $250 million stock repurchase program, and in mid-August, the stock surged after Thiel took a stake.