Lido launches institutional-grade liquid staking solution

Decentralized finance protocol Lido has announced a new staking product aimed at institutional investors.

Lido (LDO) announced on August 2 the launch of Lido Institutional, a liquid staking solution specifically designed to meet the needs of custodians, asset managers, exchanges, and other institutional entities.

“The introduction of Lido Institutional underscores Lido’s ongoing commitment to providing an exceptional staking solution tailored to the high standards of custodians, asset managers, exchanges and more,” Lido said in a post on X.com.

Security and deep liquidity

Lido, the platform behind Lido, Ethereum’s (ETH) leading liquid staking token, has staked Ether (stETH) and aims to expand its dominance with the new solution. The aim is to provide institutional investors with access to Lido’s robust security, deep liquidity, and staking rewards.

Lido Institutional offers diversified counterparty exposure that allows participants to earn staking rewards through a diversified set of 100+ node operators.

Since Ethereum’s transition from a proof-of-work blockchain to a proof-of-stake blockchain, several liquid staking and re-staking protocols have emerged to challenge Lido, including Ether.fi and Renzo. However, Lido continues to dominate the DeFi ecosystem as the largest staking protocol.

According to data from DeFiLlama, cryptocurrency deposits on Lido currently stand at over $31 billion, but the total value locked in the protocol rose to over $39 billion in March.

This comes as the Ethereum price has risen above $4,000 for the first time since reaching an all-time high above $4.8,000 in November 2021. Most altcoins have also rallied amid a significant increase in institutional visibility of the cryptocurrency.

stETH dominance

Meanwhile, Lido’s stETH is the largest and most widely used collateral token in the decentralized finance space, with a value of over $10 billion to date.

Custody solutions offering native stETH integrations include Fireblocks and Taurus, while traditional trading and asset management platforms offering access include Matrixport and Swissborg.