Renzo Protocol
About
Renzo Protocol is an institutional-grade onchain platform for staking, restaking, and capital deployment across leading crypto ecosystems. It offers three integrated product suites: Reserve Vaults (actively managed vaults deploying capital into diversified DeFi yield strategies), Staking Suite (liquid restaking tokens such as ezETH, pzETH, ezSOL, and ezBTC that auto-compound rewards across restaking ecosystems), and Enterprise Suite (a gated, white-label environment for institutions with custom configurations and privacy controls). Renzo abstracts away protocol-level complexity to serve both individual and institutional users.
Where Does Yield Come From?
Renzo Protocol generates yield across three product lines, each with its own mechanics.
1. Staking Suite (Liquid Restaking)
You deposit a native crypto asset (ETH, SOL, BTC, or similar) and receive a liquid restaking token in return — for example, ezETH on EigenLayer, pzETH on Symbiotic, ezSOL on Jito, or ezBTC on EigenCloud. Your deposited assets are then delegated to operator nodes that help secure services called AVSs (Actively Validated Services) on restaking networks.
Two types of rewards are earned at the same time:
- Native staking rewards (the standard rewards from staking the underlying blockchain).
- Restaking rewards (extra rewards from helping secure AVS services).
Rewards that come in non-ETH forms are swapped to ETH through a weekly restaking auction (designed to keep costs low and reduce price slippage). All rewards are automatically reinvested into the liquid restaking token, making its value grow relative to the original asset — no active management needed on your part.
2. Reserve Vaults
These are professionally managed vaults that accept USDC, ezETH, or other supported assets. They automatically spread deposited capital across several yield sources, including:
- Lending markets (such as Aave, Morpho, Spark, and Aave Horizon)
- Delta-neutral and leverage strategies (examples include the USCC Leverage Vault, which uses Superstate's Crypto Carry Fund with leverage from Aave Horizon, and the ezETH Compound Loop Vault, which loops positions on Compound)
- RWA-backed strategies (real-world asset strategies)
Each vault has strategy-specific caps on how much can go to each source — for instance, a maximum of 90% to Aave, 80% to Morpho, and 20% to Spark.
A 20% performance fee is charged on any yield the vault generates. Smart batching keeps gas costs lower. Withdrawals require a 3-day cooldown period.
3. Enterprise Suite
This is a gated, white-label environment for institutions. It offers whitelisted access, privacy controls, and the ability to customize operator and AVS configurations.
Protocol revenue and token buybacks
The protocol earns from performance fees and restaking fees. That revenue is directed toward buying back and burning REZ tokens, as outlined in the Renzo Riduzione tokenomics program.
No current APY or TVL figures are listed here, as those change with market conditions.
Persons
James Poole
Co-founder
Kiran Babu Muddam
Software Engineer
Audits
| Audit / Date | Findings | Verdict |
|---|---|---|
Halborn29-04-2024 - 22-05-2024 |
| All critical and high severity findings were remediated by the Renzo team as of 29-05-2024, and the single informational finding was acknowledged, leaving no unresolved vulnerabilities that would compromise protocol safety at the time of reporting. |
Halborn24-04-2024 |
| The audit found a single informational issue (race condition in approve) which was acknowledged by the Renzo team, and no critical or high severity vulnerabilities were identified, indicating the REZ token contract poses a low security risk overall. |
Halborn13-11-2023 - 29-11-2023 |
| The audit identified two critical flaws (decimal handling and minting logic) that were resolved by Renzo Protocol before deployment, and all other findings were also addressed, indicating a thorough remediation process. The contracts assessed pose low residual risk given the team's responsiveness, though the scope excluded economic attacks and third-party dependencies. |
Halborn12-09-2024 - 16-09-2024 |
| The Halborn audit identified two critical vulnerabilities that were remediated before finalization, and all informational items were either fixed or acknowledged. The contracts were deemed secure for deployment with all reported findings addressed. |
Sigma Prime01-06-2024 |
| Sigma Prime's audit found one critical and five high-severity vulnerabilities, most of which were resolved before publication, though the malicious validator front-running risk was accepted under existing off-chain operator agreements. The protocol's residual risk centers on centralised roles and edge cases in TVL accounting that the team may address in future releases. |
Code4rena30-04-2024 - 08-05-2024 |
| The audit uncovered eight critical-severity vulnerabilities that directly affected TVL calculations, withdrawal safety, and cross-chain solvency; however, the Renzo team mitigated all confirmed High findings (and several Mediums) in a follow-up review, substantially reducing residual risk. Protocol users should still be aware of the remaining Medium and Low findings, particularly around oracle staleness and arbitrage boundaries. |
Nethermind28-03-2025 - 14-04-2025 |
| The audit identified two High-severity and one Medium-severity share-accounting flaws in Renzo's EigenLayer integration, all of which were fixed prior to the final report; three Low and three Informational items were either fixed or acknowledged. The protocol's core TVL and withdrawal accounting have been materially hardened against slashing-related edge cases, though residual operational risks around checkpoint synchronization and buffer overfilling remain acknowledged by the team. |
Backers
Renzo Protocol's official tokenomics (disclosed in the REZ Token Launch blog post and the docs) allocate 31.56% of the total 10 billion REZ supply to a "Fundraising" category, described as "token rights obtained by investors backing Renzo's early development." These investor tokens are subject to a 2-year lock — a 1-year cliff followed by 10% unlock and 1-year linear monthly vesting thereafter. Additionally, 2.5% of the supply was allocated to the Binance Launch Pool. However, no specific investor names, venture capital firms, individual backers, round sizes, or round dates are named or detailed anywhere on Renzo Protocol's official sources (website, documentation, blog, GitHub, or governance pages). The protocol's blog mentions $3.5B in deposits across Season 1 but does not disclose any named institutional or VC investors.
Legal
Legal form
RestakeX Ventures Ltd. (company); RestakeX Foundation (Panama foundation)
Registration jurisdiction
RestakeX Ventures Ltd. governed by laws of British Virgin Islands; RestakeX Foundation registered as a foundation in Panama
Status and notes
The Renzo Protocol website (renzoprotocol.com) and app are operated by RestakeX Ventures Ltd. (British Virgin Islands), as disclosed in the Terms of Service. The Protocol is maintained by RestakeX Foundation (described as a Panama foundation in the EIGEN Claim Terms of Service). Complete legal documentation is published at docs.renzoprotocol.com/docs/legal/, including Terms of Service, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer, REZ Claim Terms (governed by Cayman Islands law), EIGEN Claim Terms (governed by Panama law), and Reserve Managed Vaults Terms. Contact email: [email protected]. No physical address, registry number, or board of directors is disclosed for either entity.