Puffer Finance’s native token saw its price spike sharply on Oct. 14 after the liquid restaking protocol announced that token claims were now open.

The PUFFER token, which has received support from several top crypto exchanges, including Kraken, Bybit, and Bitget, rose to highs of 49 cents.

This represented a spike of more than 55% for the token just after Puffer announced the opening of token claims. Puffer Finance experienced congestion that ‘overwhelmed’ the website as rising numbers of users attempted to reclaim PUFFER tokens.

What is Puffer Finance?

PUFFER is the native governance token of Puffer Finance, a decentralized finance protocol offering yield farming and staking for its users.

The token’s role in the Puffer and UniFi, a based rollup, includes use in liquid restaking and support of actively managed services. Its integration into Puffer’s liquid restaking technology and UniFi’s AVS allows holders to earn yield and participate in the decentralized governance that manages the protocol’s treasury rewards.

Holders can stake or use PUFFER in the governance of the restaking protocol through the vePUFFER staking service.

Puffer Finance’s liquid restaking platform on Ethereum (ETH) laces it among the top protocols in terms of total value locked, with ecosystem giants such as Ether.Fi and EigenLayer leading. According to DeFiLlama data, Puffer has a TVL of over $1.4 billion.

The protocol raised $18 million during its Series A funding round in April 2024. Brevan Howard Digital and Electric Capital co-led the round, which also attracted backing from Coinbase Ventures, Lemniscap, and Franklin Templeton.

In an earlier round in August 2023, Puffer secured $5.5 million. Lemniscap and Lightspeed Faction co-led that round.