Lido, the leading layer-1 Ethereum liquid staking protocol, holds the largest ownership stake at 28.5%, making it the largest protocol category in the DeFi ecosystem. As the top decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol on Ethereum, Lido has reached a significant milestone of 1 million validators.
Lido’s dominance in the liquid staking space was announced on April 29 by Lido Finance, Ethereum’s premier liquid staking platform. This protocol allows retail investors with limited capital to participate in staking, eliminating the requirement of holding 32 Ether.
In addition to the benefits of liquid staking, Lido offers users various liquidity advantages. When users deposit their Ether with Lido, they become owners of Lido-staked Ether (ETH), which can be further utilized in other DeFi protocols.
During the staking period, the Ether tokens are locked and unavailable for use. This accumulation of staked ETH has created a network effect, fueling the tremendous growth of the cryptocurrency universe. Currently, nearly $100 billion is locked in DeFi protocols, with approximately $90 billion worth of Total Value Locked (TVL) in decentralized finance platforms. The total DeFi TVL currently stands at $92.32 billion, as reported by DefiLlama.
The significant growth and accessibility of DeFi can be attributed to liquid staking protocols like Lido, which has contributed to a 65.6% increase in TVL quarter-on-quarter. On-chain intelligence provider Messari states that this upward trend is primarily driven by the appreciation of assets in liquid staking, with Ethereum’s TVL rising by approximately 71%.
As of June 2023, the liquid staking protocols with the highest TruTVL amounts have accumulated over $47.7 billion in TVL. Lido’s pool alone holds over $29.9 billion, securing its position as the largest individual pool. The Rocket Pool follows closely behind with $3.8 billion in TVL, claiming the second spot.
Out of all the pools, Lido Finance holds 28.5% of the total staked amount, making it the largest individual pool. Coinbase ranks second with 13.6% of the total amount of ETH staked on the network. Currently, approximately 27% of Ether investors have staking accounts.