Lido overtakes MakerDAO and now has the highest TVL in DeFi

Liquid staking protocol Lido Finance appears to have benefited most from the Ethereum merge in September, with its total value locked (TVL) now sitting at the top position among other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

According to data from DeFiLlama, Lido’s liquid staking protocol now commands $5.9 billion in TVL, compared to MakerDAO’s $5.89 billion and AAVE’s $3.7 billion.

Lido now has the highest TVL of any DeFi protocol. pic.twitter.com/2xsM3lVGVl

— Patrick | Dynamo DeFi (@Dynamo_Patrick) January 1, 2023

According to Lido Finance’s website, as at Jan. 2 had $5.8 billion Ether (ETH) staked. Meanwhile, there was around $23.2 million staked in Solana (SOL), $43.9 million in Polygon (MATIC), $11 million in Polkadot (DOT) and $2.2 million in Kusama (KSM).

Lido’s model allows users access to liquid Ether staking without committing to the traditional 32 ETH minimum.

Blockchain data analytics from Nansen in December noted that staking solutions such as these had been in high demand since Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake.

It’s report highlighted the impact of the Merge in introducing staked ETH as an out-and-out cryptocurrency-native yield-bearing instrument that has quickly outstripped other collateralized yield-bearing services.

Lido appears to have benefitted from this, as its fee revenue has been directly proportional to Ethereum Proof-of-stake (PoS) earnings since Lido sends received Ether to the staking protocol.

In Nov. 2022 that Lido said it has been collecting $1 million in fees every day since Oct. 2022.

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Meanwhile, the governing body of the Maker protocol MakerDAO saw its revenue decline to just over $4 million in Q3, a 86% plunge from the previous quarter according to a Messari statement in Sept. 2022, citing few liquidations and weak loan demand as the reasons for the decline.

In that same month, Lido held the most amount of staked ETH amongst DeFi, with 31% according to Nansen in September, which is a significant amount compared to major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, holding 15% and 8.5% respectively.