Lido Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) protocol, has seen its total value locked (TVL) rise to the top since Ethereum’s merger in September.
As of now, Lido’s liquid staking protocol has a total market cap of $5.96 billion in TVL, surpassing both MakerDAO’s $5.91 billion and AAVE’s $3.26 billion, according to DeFiLlama.
Lido’s approach eliminates the need for users to put up the standard 32 ETH minimum to participate in liquid Ether staking, which has made it popular in the wake of Ethereum’s move to proof-of-stake.
Data analytics firm Nansen found that staking solutions like Lido’s have been in high demand since the Ethereum Merge.
Lido earns fees by depositing every Ether it receives into the Ethereum proof-of-stake (PoS) staking mechanism and has stated that it has been earning $1 million in fees daily since October 2022.
Lido held the largest portion of staked ETH among DeFi protocols in September 2022, at 31%, compared to 15% held by Coinbase and 8.5% held by Kraken.
In contrast, MakerDAO, the regulatory body of the Maker protocol, saw its income drop to just over $4 million in Q3 2022, an 86% decline from the previous quarter, due to low liquidations and weak lending demand, according to Messari.
