Lido is a liquid staking protocol primarily built on Ethereum that allows users to stake ETH without meeting the 32 ETH minimum required to run a validator node directly. When a user deposits ETH into Lido, they receive stETH \u2014 a liquid representation of their staked position that accrues staking rewards over time and can be used in other decentralised finance applications. Lido is governed by the Lido DAO, a decentralised autonomous organisation whose members hold LDO tokens and vote on protocol parameters including fee structures, node operator onboarding, and treasury allocations.<\/p>\n
As of mid-2025, Lido holds the largest share of staked ETH among liquid staking providers, making it a systemically significant component of Ethereum’s proof-of-stake infrastructure. LDO is the governance token for the Lido DAO and confers voting rights but does not represent a direct claim on protocol revenue or stETH yields. The protocol charges a fee on staking rewards that is split between node operators and the DAO treasury. Risks associated with Lido include smart contract vulnerabilities, the concentration of staked ETH in a single protocol \u2014 which has prompted ongoing debate within the Ethereum community about centralisation \u2014 and regulatory uncertainty around liquid staking products in various jurisdictions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Lido is a liquid staking protocol primarily built on Ethereum that allows users to stake ETH without meeting the 32 ETH minimum required to run a validator node directly. When a user deposits ETH into Lido, they receive stETH \u2014 a liquid representation of their staked position that accrues staking rewards over time and can \u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","meta":{"tmp_coingecko_id":"lido-dao","tmp_symbol":"LDO","tmp_rank":0,"tmp_chain":"","tmp_ticker":"","tmp_pair":"","tmp_yahoo_symbol":"","tmp_faq":"[{\"q\":\"What is the difference between stETH and LDO?\",\"a\":\"stETH is a liquid staking token issued to users who deposit ETH into Lido; its balance increases daily to reflect accumulated staking rewards. LDO is Lido's governance token, held by DAO participants who vote on protocol decisions. stETH represents a staked ETH position, while LDO carries governance rights but no automatic entitlement to staking yield.\"},{\"q\":\"Why is Lido considered significant to the Ethereum ecosystem?\",\"a\":\"Lido holds the largest concentration of staked ETH among liquid staking protocols, representing a substantial share of all ETH participating in proof-of-stake consensus. This scale gives the protocol meaningful influence over Ethereum's validator set, which has prompted debate about whether a single protocol holding that much staked ETH poses risks to network decentralisation and censorship resistance.\"},{\"q\":\"How does Lido generate revenue and who receives it?\",\"a\":\"Lido charges a fee u2014 currently 10 percent of staking rewards u2014 on ETH deposited through the protocol. This fee is divided between the network of node operators who run validators on behalf of depositors and the Lido DAO treasury. The remaining 90 percent of staking rewards accrues to stETH holders automatically through a daily token balance rebasing mechanism.\"},{\"q\":\"What are the main risks of using or holding Lido-related tokens?\",\"a\":\"stETH carries smart contract risk, slashing risk if validators misbehave, and potential de-pegging from ETH in low-liquidity conditions. LDO faces governance risk u2014 including the possibility that token holders make protocol decisions that harm depositors u2014 and is subject to cryptocurrency market volatility. Regulators in several jurisdictions are examining whether liquid staking products require registration as financial securities.\"}]"},"class_list":["post-1000213","coin","type-coin","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarketperiodical.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coin\/1000213","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarketperiodical.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coin"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarketperiodical.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/coin"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/themarketperiodical.com\/de\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1000213"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}