Lido Finance Cements DeFi Lead, Expands To Optimism: Is LDO Undervalued?

Lido Finance, the largest DeFi platform by assets under management, is expanding. The liquidity staking platform said it now supports the deployment of its stETH value-accruing token on Optimism, a layer-2 solution for Ethereum.

In a blog post, Lido Finance said the decision will allow its users to benefit from daily staking rewards. At the same time, the platform said, those who choose to deploy their stETH on Optimism will have a seamless bridging experience while concurrently unlocking other multichain opportunities.

The deployment means Lido Finance is expanding in line with its multichain strategy. By offering stETH and wstETH on multiple layer-2 platforms on Ethereum, including on Arbitrum, the liquidity staking solution gives users a more flexible way to stake their ETH. Moreover, because Ethereum layer-2 solutions are designed to be scaled, all transactions, Lido Finance said, will be cheap.

Lido Finance is among several liquidity-staking platforms that allow users to stake their ETH and earn a yield. This is possible because Ethereum successfully migrated from a proof-of-work consensus to a staking system in 2022 after the Merge.

Once developers powered off the proof-of-work system, the network was migrated to the Beacon chain. In this new chain, validators secured and processed all transactions.

With validators in the equation, those who sought to operate full nodes and compete for a part of the 3 ETH block reward and fees had to lock in 32 ETH. This threshold was out of reach for most users. Accordingly, the platform allows users to stake ETH without having the 32 ETH required to run a full node.

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As of October 16, DeFiLlama data shows that Lido Finance had a total value locked (TVL) of over $25 billion. Over the last year alone, the protocol has generated over $845 million in the last year and more than $1.8 billion since launching.

Although the protocol helps secure the Ethereum mainnet, ETH holders of several layer-2s, including Arbitrum, Base, Linea, and Scroll, can stake directly from these off-chain solutions.

Despite Lido Finance growing its ecosystem, LDO prices are struggling for momentum. Even after gains of October 14, the token is yet to break above September highs and reverse losses of the last nine months. After peaking in March, LDO is down 72%.