Swell Network

About Swell Network (SWELL)

What Is Swell Network?

Swell is a non-custodial liquid staking and restaking protocol on Ethereum. Users deposit ETH and receive swETH (a liquid staking token) or rswETH (a liquid restaking token) that keep earning rewards while remaining usable in DeFi. SWELL is the governance token of Swell DAO, and since 2026 it also absorbs protocol revenue through a buy-and-burn auction. Swell matters as one of the established routes for ETH holders to stake without running a validator or locking 32 ETH.

Who Founded Swell Network? (History)

The Swell documentation and website we reviewed do not name the founders, so we leave that out. What the official sources do document:

• Swell's staking products launched first, followed by the SWELL token, whose initial distribution included the Voyage airdrop to early stakers and liquidity providers.
• Swell launched Swellchain, an L2 on the Optimism Superchain, and later announced its sunset. In a post dated April 28, 2026, Swell said deposits into Swellchain would be disabled on May 5, the final deadline to initiate withdrawals was June 15, 2026, and the chain would keep running until June 30. The team cited slower-than-expected growth in restaking and improved Ethereum L1 scalability.
• The same post states that swETH, rswETH and SWELL on Ethereum are not affected, and that Swell is shifting its focus to Faro, described on the site as a research-to-trade platform for Hyperliquid.

How Swell Network Works

1. Liquid staking (swETH) Users deposit any amount of ETH. Swell pools deposits and assigns them to a curated set of professional node operators who run Ethereum validators. swETH represents the staked ETH plus accrued rewards through a rising exchange rate.

2. Liquid restaking (rswETH) rswETH works the same way but also restakes the ETH through restaking protocols such as EigenLayer, so validators can earn rewards from Actively Validated Services (AVSs) in addition to Beacon Chain rewards.

3. rSWELL Holders can restake SWELL itself into rSWELL, a yield-bearing ERC-20 that provides economic security to networks on Symbiotic and EigenLayer. According to the rSWELL docs, rSWELL keeps 1:1 voting power, withdrawals currently take 3 days, and Gauntlet acts as the restaking guardian selecting strategies.

4. Earn vaults Products such as earnETH and earnBTC run DeFi strategies on deposited assets.

Key Ecosystem Components

• swETH and rswETH: Swell's core staking and restaking tokens.
• rSWELL: restaked SWELL that keeps governance rights.
• Earn vaults (earnETH, earnBTC).
• Swell DAO: governance via the forum and Snapshot.
• Faro: the new product focus announced in 2026.

SWELL Token Utility

• Governance: SWELL holders vote on Snapshot after a forum process that includes a minimum 7-day feedback period.
• Restaking: SWELL can be restaked as rSWELL to earn restaking yield while keeping votes.
• Buying protocol revenue: under the Fee Flow mechanism, fees earned in swETH and rswETH accumulate and are sold every 14 days through a Dutch auction in which SWELL is the only accepted bid currency. The SWELL received is sent to a burn address.
• Faro status program: Swell has said it is designing a program linking SWELL to Faro, with details not yet published in the sources we reviewed.

Fixed tokenomics from the tokenomics page: maximum supply of 10,000,000,000 SWELL, allocated 35% community (including 8.5% for the Voyage airdrop and 7% for Wavedrops), 25% team (36-month linear vesting after a 12-month cliff), 25% fundraising (30-month linear vesting after a 12-month lock-up) and 15% foundation. Up to 13% of supply was unlocked at launch.

What Makes Swell Network Unique?

Swell combines staking, restaking and restaked governance in one family of tokens, and it routes protocol revenue into SWELL burns through a public auction rather than discretionary buybacks. Its willingness to sunset its own L2 when usage did not justify it is also unusual among protocols.

How Swell Network Differs from Similar Chains

• Versus Lido: Lido is the largest liquid staking provider and focuses on stETH. Swell is smaller and leans more heavily into restaking products.
• Versus ether.fi, Puffer and Renzo: all offer liquid restaking tokens. Swell's differences are its paired LST and LRT, the rSWELL governance restaking vault and the Fee Flow burn.
• Versus EigenLayer: EigenLayer is the restaking protocol itself. Swell builds on top of it and similar protocols.

Use Cases of Swell Network

• Staking ETH without running a validator or meeting the 32 ETH minimum.
• Restaking ETH for additional AVS rewards.
• Using swETH or rswETH as collateral or liquidity in DeFi.
• Voting on Swell DAO proposals with SWELL or rSWELL.

How Swell Network Is Secured

Ethereum consensus secures the staked ETH, while Swell's contracts and node operator set determine custody and performance. Swell states that its swETH and rswETH audits were carried out by Sigma Prime and Codespect, with reports in its public audit repository. rSWELL contracts fork audited swBTC contracts reviewed by Nethermind and ChainSecurity. Swell runs a bug bounty on Immunefi with rewards of up to $250,000.

Risks and Considerations

• Slashing and operator risk if validators misbehave or go offline.
• Restaking risk: additional slashing conditions from AVSs.
• Smart contract risk across staking, vault and auction contracts.
• Strategy shift: Swell's pivot toward Faro changes the product roadmap, and SWELL's link to Faro is not yet fully specified.
• Token unlocks from team and investor allocations under the vesting schedules above.

Why Swell Network Matters

Liquid staking and restaking are core building blocks of Ethereum DeFi, and Swell remains one of the protocols offering both. Its Fee Flow design gives SWELL a direct, auditable link to protocol revenue.

Where Can You Buy Swell Network?

SWELL is an ERC-20 token on Ethereum and trades on centralized exchanges and Ethereum DEXs. Confirm the contract 0x0a6E7Ba5042B38349e437ec6Db6214AEC7B35676 on Etherscan before trading.

Storage Options After Purchase

Any Ethereum wallet supporting ERC-20 tokens can hold SWELL, including hardware wallets. To restake into rSWELL or vote, connect your wallet to the Swell app and Snapshot.

Related Coins

• Lido DAO
• ether.fi
• Puffer
• Renzo
• EigenLayer