In an April 29 announcement, Lido Finance, the leading liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, has hit a huge milestone, reaching one million validators.
Lido Finance is making staking easier for regular users with a lot of capital. Normally a user needs 32 Ether (ETH), worth about $3,178 to run their validator nodes on Ethereum, but with Lido finance, users having limited funds can also participate.
Right now, Lido Finance covers a whopping 28.5% of all staked Ether, while another 13.6% is staked through Coinbase. In total, over 27% of all Ether is currently being staked.
The rise of liquid staking protocols like Lido has been remarkable. They offer users liquidity benefits that traditional staking doesn’t. When one stakes their Ether with Lido, they receive stETH (Lido Staked ETH) in return, which they can use elsewhere in DeFi protocols, as in traditional staking, the user’s tokens would be locked up and unusable.
The total value locked (TVL) in DeFi protocols has seen a massive increase which went from a low of $36 billion in late 2023 to a peak of $97 billion in early 2024, and is currently, standing at $92.32 billion.
According to Messari, the growth in DeFi TVL, up by 65.6% quarter-on-quarter, is mostly due to asset price increases and the popularity of liquid restaking, especially with Ethereum’s TVL growing nearly 71%.
Cumulatively, liquid staking protocols have locked in over $47.7 billion in value, with Lido alone accounting for $29.9 billion. Rocket Pool comes in second with $3.86 billion. This makes liquid staking the largest category in DeFi, with a combined TVL across 164 protocols reaching $47.6 billion.
Also Read: JPMorgan Forecasts Ethereum To Evade ‘Security’ Label Amid Lido’s Decline
