Lido Finance stakes its Ether reserves from treasury despite Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin’s warning

Lido Finance staked all its Ether treasury holdings last week, data released Tuesday showed, in a sign the DeFi lending protocol plans to keep ETH over the long term. The move could fuel a bullish thesis for Ethereum even after its co-founder Vitalik Buterin recently said he stakes only part of his holdings due to security concerns.

Lido DAO (LDO), the protocol’s token, trades at $2.20 on Binance at the time of writing, gaining nearly 14% over the past week.

Also read: DeFi researchers propose ERC 7265 to tackle massive exploits like Poly Network

Lido Finance fuels bullish thesis for Ethereum staking

Lido Finance, a multi-platform staking solution, contributed to building a bullish case for Ethereum by staking their treasury holdings in exchange for stETH. On Lido, Ethereum holders exchange their ETH for stETH and earn revenue from “liquid staking.”

Lido’s community voted on staking all of the treasury’s Ether holdings to add nearly $2 million to the protocol DAO’s revenue annually. All treasury management community members voted in favor of the proposal.

The move means that Lido’s holding will depend on Ethereum price, and volatile moves could influence its capacity to face operating expenses.  Despite the associated risks, the proposal went through and Lido members placed their trust in their staked Ether token (stETH), exchanging the treasury’s Ethereum for stETH.

Lido now holds 33,000 stETH. The protocol shared its statistics in a recent tweet thread, informing the community that Lido’s Total Value Locked (TVL) closed last week at $14.75 billion. The DeFi lending protocol added net new deposits of 132,800 Ether throughout the past week. 

Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin recently said that he stakes only a percentage of his Ether holdings on the Beacon contract due to security concerns. Lido’s move, therefore, supports Ethereum network’s security by pledging Ether holdings from the treasury to the Beacon chain. 

Did Lido’s move support LDO price recovery?

The protocol’s token LDO has climbed 14.3% since June 27. Lido Protocol’s move has likely played a role in the token’s recent price rise, but it is uncertain if the uptrend will continue.

At the time of writing, LDO trades at $2.20 on Binance.

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