Overview
Lido is the largest liquid staking protocol. It launched in December 2020 to make Ethereum staking easy: instead of needing 32 ETH and running your own validator, you can deposit any amount of ETH and receive stETH in return.
stETH earns staking rewards automatically and can be traded or used in DeFi at the same time. Lido holds about $24 billion of staked ETH, according to DeFiLlama, and stETH is one of the most widely used tokens in DeFi.
How it works
- You deposit ETH with Lido.
- Lido spreads it across many professional node operators who run validators.
- You receive stETH, which grows with staking rewards (around 3% a year, minus Lido’s 10% fee).
- You can trade stETH, use it as collateral, or request to withdraw ETH, which takes from a few days to longer when many people exit at once.
Lido takes 10% of staking rewards, split between node operators and the DAO.
Dual governance and V3
LDO holders govern Lido, which critics saw as too much power for a token not tied to staked ETH. Since 2025, dual governance lets stETH holders delay or block DAO decisions they disagree with, giving them a real voice and time to exit.
Lido V3 introduced stVaults, which let institutions and large stakers set up their own staking setups with chosen operators while still using stETH. In 2026, SharpLink Gaming planned to stake $200 million in ETH via Lido, and BitGo opened Lido staking to US clients.
The LDO token
| LDO at a glance | |
|---|---|
| Maximum supply | 1 billion LDO |
| In circulation (Oct 2026) | about 830 million |
| Price (21 Oct 2026) | about $0.41 |
| All-time high | about $7.30 (August 2021) |
| Market cap | about $340 million (#135) |
LDO is a governance token: it doesn’t receive Lido’s fees directly. In 2025–2026, the DAO discussed an automated buyback (active only when ETH is above $3,000 and revenue above $40 million) and a one-off buyback of about $20 million. By mid-October 2026, very little LDO had actually been bought back. LDO hit an all-time low of about $0.27 in March 2026.
Security and reliability
Lido’s contracts have run for years without a major hack. The main risks:
- Market share. Lido’s share of all staked ETH fell from a peak of about 32% to roughly 23–24% in 2026, as ETFs, exchanges and treasury companies stake on their own. In the first half of 2026 it captured only a small share of new staking.
- Revenue. Lido’s revenue fell 23% to about $40.5 million in 2025.
- Slashing. If node operators misbehave or make mistakes, stakers can lose a small part of their ETH.
- De-pegging. In stressful markets, stETH can trade slightly below ETH, as happened in 2022.
- Concentration. Some argue that one protocol controlling a large share of Ethereum staking is a risk for Ethereum itself.
Lido vs. the competition
| Lido | Rocket Pool | Coinbase (cbETH) | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Type | Liquid staking DAO | Decentralized liquid staking | Exchange staking |
| Staked ETH | Largest | Much smaller | Large |
| Who runs validators | Approved operators (+ V3 vaults) | Anyone with a bond | Coinbase |
| Token | LDO (governance) | RPL | None |
Our verdict
Lido made Ethereum staking easy for everyone and remains the largest staking protocol, with stETH at the heart of DeFi. Dual governance and V3 are meaningful improvements.
But the LDO token has struggled: it gets no direct share of fees, buybacks have barely started, revenue is down and Lido’s market share keeps falling. LDO is a high-risk investment: invest only what you can afford to lose.
This review is for information only and is not financial advice.