Lido’s Liquid Staking Protocol Dominates with $9.3B in Locked Ethereum, Boosted by Tron Founder’s Deposits

During the past 30 days, the total value locked (TVL) in Lido Finance’s liquid staking protocol increased by 10.57%, with 7.56% of the increase occurring within the last seven days. The protocol’s dominance in decentralized finance (defi) has also increased, with its TVL accounting for 19.08% of the $49.66 billion locked in defi today. While the rise in ethereum’s price has contributed to the increase in TVL, Lido’s liquid staking program reportedly received a total deposit of at least 303,000 ether from Tron founder Justin Sun.

Lido, the liquid staking protocol, has seen a 7.56% rise over the past week, with a total value locked (TVL) of $9.48 billion as of March 2, 2023. Lido’s web portal, lido.fi, shows that $9.3 billion of the TVL consists of ethereum (ETH) deposits. The total value locked on Lido, including crypto assets like SOL, MATIC, DOT, and KSM, accounts for 19.08% of the $49.66 billion locked in defi today.

Lido is currently the largest defi protocol in terms of TVL, followed by Makerdao, Curve, and Aave. Out of the 7,607,536 Ether ($12.44B) locked in liquid staking platforms, Lido commands 74.87% of the total value. In terms of liquid staking protocols, Lido is followed by Coinbase’s Wrapped Ether protocol, Rocketpool, Frax Ether, and Stakewise.

One factor contributing to the increase in value locked is the 3.8% rise in the price of ether against the U.S. dollar, which has contributed to the growing value of Lido’s staked ether (STETH). However, the protocol has also seen a significant amount of inflow this week, and onchain data shows that Tron founder Justin Sun ostensibly deposited at least 303,000 ether into Lido.

Bitcoin.com News reported on the initial 150,000 ether reportedly deposited by the founder of Tron. Blockchain analysis and security auditing firm Peckshield noted that after the 150,000 ether deposit, addresses labeled in Sun’s name added more ethereum to the Lido protocol. Some people speculated that, including the initial deposit and subsequent deposits, the Tron founder’s inflow into Lido amounted to 210,100 ether.



However, according to transaction data shown by the onchain analytics tool Arkham Intelligence, Sun’s total staked ether may be much more than 210,000 ETH. Arkham’s transaction analysis indicates that Sun holds a total of 303,660 STETH, which is worth $494 million based on STETH exchange rates on March 2, 2023.

In addition to STETH, Sun’s labeled addresses show that he also holds 25,657 ethereum (ETH), worth $41.64 million. Lido currently offers an estimated annual percentage yield (APY) of 4%. This means that if the addresses do belong to Sun, the Tron founder is earning 4% interest on close to half a billion dollars’ worth of staked ethereum.

What do you think about Justin Sun’s reported Lido deposits and Lido’s increase this week? Share your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.