Solayer, a cutting-edge Solana restaking protocol, has made headlines with its remarkable soft launch, raising a staggering $20 million in just 45 minutes. This achievement marks a significant milestone in the protocol's development, which began in late 2023. Initially seeking $8 million under Polychain's leadership, Solayer Labs has exceeded expectations with its invite-only deposit launch.

The Solana-based restaking protocol's soft launch allowed select investors to restake SOL and deposit liquid staking products like Blaze-SOL, JITOSOL, INF, and Marinade-SOL. According to Blockworks, a Solayer team member confirmed that the exclusive soft launch hit the $20 million cap in a mere 45 minutes. Coindesk reports that Solayer Labs is close to raising an additional $10 million from industry players, including Yakovenko, a former Sushiswap core developer.

Solayer Labs has released a roadmap outlining three key stages: restaking epochs, node operators, and shared validator networks. The team aims to ease the onboarding process for investors by releasing these phases incrementally. Stage 1, Genesis Private Epoch, focuses on establishing a balanced security foundation, with the Genesis Epoch (Epoch-0) allowing invite-only investors to restake within a limited time frame.

The native restaking pool offers users various yield stacks, including Solayer rewards, SVN yields, and MEV-boosted staking yields. Although the protocol supports over 20 digital assets, Stage 1 launched with four major Solana Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs). Solayer has announced a withdrawal schedule, ensuring that restaked assets will be locked until Epoch 3, with full withdrawability before Stage 2 commences.