Lido DAO: The new DeFi leader
Proactive Investors – may not have enjoyed the post-Merge surge many were hoping for, but one decentralised finance (DeFi) platform has enjoyed a massive groundswell in popularity following Ethereum’s major 2.0 network upgrade.
On January 2, liquid staking platform Lido overtook MakerDAO as the largest DeFi platform by total value locked (TVL).
According to market tracker DeFi Llama, Lido currently has US$5.98bn in TVL compared to MakerDAO’s US$5.93, marking the first time that MakerDAO has been overtaken in recent memory.
Lido’s surge in popularity stems from giving users the ability to partake in Ethereum staking without committing to the 32 ETH (US$40,000) minimum requirement.
In return for staking ETH, which contributes to Ethereum’s network security, stakers can earn up to 4.4% yield, depending on the staking duration.
Lido now commands 15.3% of all TVL across the $39bn DeFi marketplace.
Proxy token LDO also saw a surge, although its performance is not directly aligned to the platform’s TVL.
LDO is up nearly 20% week on week, thus bringing its market capitalisation above US$1bn for the first time since April 2022.
