RIADeFiPublished by Ketju Research
Not approved · ETH staking

Ketju memo: Renzo (ezETH liquid restaking)

Not approvedPublished by Ketju Research

This memo sets out what the holder owns, who controls it, how holders could lose money, and whether a position can be sold. The advisor decides any client action and amount. Not investment, legal, tax, or compliance advice.

Summary

Ketju does not approve Renzo (ezETH): role holders control every lever that matters, including a minter-burner role that can burn ezETH from any holder's address without permission. ezETH is a non-rebasing claim on Renzo's pooled ETH and stETH, restaked through EigenLayer across operators the team selects. The contracts are upgradeable behind a multisig whose threshold the documentation never states, and no timelock is described. An oracle admin can repoint any collateral price feed, and a pauser role can halt deposits and withdrawals. The public repository shows the burn power, and the user documentation never mentions it. On 2024-04-24 ezETH traded to $688 on Uniswap against an ETH price above $3,100. Leveraged holders were liquidated on Gearbox and Morpho, because no protocol withdrawal existed to hold the price to its backing. Renzo revised its airdrop terms and never published a post-mortem. Deposits have since fallen from a self-reported $3.5B peak to about $113M. Direct ETH, Lido stETH or Rocket Pool rETH give a client staking without AVS losses chosen by administrators, an unstated slashing waterfall or a role that can confiscate tokens. The allocation is zero.

Review triggers

  • Renzo publishes the multisig threshold, signers and an enforced timelock, and they match the deployed contracts for 12 consecutive months
  • A written slashing waterfall documents how validator and AVS losses spread across holders and what funded capital absorbs them first
  • The burn-from-any-holder minter-burner power is removed or disclosed in user-facing documentation with a stated control
  • Renzo publishes a post-mortem of the 2024-04-24 depeg with the price path, liquidations and its structural fix
  • Net restaking rewards exceed the approved plain-staking alternative by a written margin for 12 consecutive months, with a verifiable active bug bounty and withdrawals at the proposed size passing written time and slippage limits

Facts

Verdict
Not approved
Type
ETH staking
Chains examined
Ethereum
Reviewed
Last confirmed

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