Lido protocol
Overview
Lido is the largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum. Users stake ETH and receive stETH, a liquid token that represents the staked assets plus rewards and can be traded or used across decentralized finance applications. The protocol is governed by the Lido DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization of LDO token holders. Lido's earlier deployments on other proof-of-stake chains — including Solana, Polygon, Polkadot, Kusama, Moonbeam and Moonriver — have all been sunset, so Lido is now focused solely on Ethereum, with roughly $17 billion in value staked as of 2026-07-15.
Within the DeFi Intel graph, Lido connects to 90 tracked entities, most strongly to Ethereum, Pendle Finance, Lido Staked ETH.
Relations
Top connections in the DeFi Intel knowledge graph (confidence-weighted, 6 of 90 total).
| Relation | Connected entity | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
deployed_on | Ethereum | 95% |
provides_underlying_for | Pendle Finance | 95% |
supports_token | Lido Staked ETH | 95% |
issues | Lido Staked ETH | 95% |
charges_fee | Lido Staked ETH | 95% |
uses_operator | Chorus One | 95% |
Company intelligence
Lido is a liquid staking protocol that lets users stake ETH and receive stETH, a token that represents staked assets and can be used across DeFi.
Investors
- Andreessen Horowitz VC
- Sequoia Capital VC
- Polychain Capital VC
- Coinbase Ventures VC
Partners
- Ethereum Blockchain
- Solana Blockchain
- Polkadot Blockchain
- Coinbase Exchange
- Binance Exchange
- Kraken Exchange
Products
- stETH Liquid Staking Token
- stSOL Liquid Staking Token
- stDOT Liquid Staking Token
Funding
Key people
- Alexey Shchegolev Founder & CEO
- Vlad Yatsenko Co-founder & COO
- Ilya Zubkov Chief Technology Officer
Timeline & market context
Amber line: BTC price over the last year. Dots: dated events (hack/incident red, fundraise green, partnership blue, launch purple, regulatory amber, news grey).
Frequently asked questions
What is Lido?
Lido is a liquid staking protocol that allows users to stake tokens on proof-of-stake blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana, issuing liquid tokens like stETH that can be traded or used across decentralized finance applications.
How is Lido governed?
Lido is governed by the Lido DAO, a decentralized autonomous organization of LDO token holders.
What chains does Lido support?
Lido supports proof-of-stake blockchains such as Ethereum and Solana.