What Is Lido?

Lido is a decentralized liquid staking protocol that allows users to stake their cryptocurrency assets and receive liquid staking tokens in return. Founded in 2020, Lido is by far the largest staking protocol by total value locked (TVL), securing tens of billions of dollars in staked assets, primarily Ethereum. The protocol accounts for a significant share of all staked ETH.

• Overview - Table of Contents
• What Is Lido?
• Getting Started With Lido
• How To Get A Lido Wallet?
• Lido Resources
• How To Buy LDO?
• Latest Lido News

The fundamental problem Lido solves is the illiquidity of staked assets. When users stake ETH directly on Ethereum's Beacon Chain, their tokens are locked and cannot be used for other purposes. Lido allows users to stake any amount of ETH and receive stETH (staked ETH) in return, a liquid token that represents their staked ETH plus accumulated staking rewards. stETH can be freely traded, used as collateral in DeFi protocols, or held to earn staking yields.

How Lido works:

• Deposit: Users deposit ETH into the Lido smart contract and receive stETH at a 1:1 ratio.
• Staking: Lido distributes the deposited ETH across a curated set of professional node operators who run validators.
• Rewards: stETH balances automatically rebase daily to reflect staking rewards. If you hold 10 stETH, your balance gradually increases over time.
• Withdrawal: Users can unstake by exchanging stETH back for ETH through Lido's withdrawal mechanism or by trading stETH on the open market.

Lido also offers wstETH (wrapped stETH), a non-rebasing version where the token price increases instead of the balance. This is more compatible with many DeFi protocols and is widely used as collateral on Aave, MakerDAO, and other lending platforms.

The protocol charges a 10% fee on staking rewards, split equally between node operators and the Lido DAO treasury. The remaining 90% of rewards go directly to stETH holders.

LDO is the governance token of the Lido DAO. LDO holders vote on key protocol decisions including node operator selection, fee parameters, protocol upgrades, and treasury management. Lido governance has become one of the most active DAOs in DeFi.

Lido has expanded beyond Ethereum to support staking on Polygon, though Ethereum remains the dominant focus. stETH has become one of the most important assets in DeFi, widely accepted as collateral across major protocols.

Getting Started With Lido

Staking ETH with Lido is simple:

1. Step 1: Connect an Ethereum wallet (MetaMask, Ledger, etc.) to the Lido web app at stake.lido.fi.
2. Step 2: Enter the amount of ETH you want to stake (no minimum required).
3. Step 3: Approve the transaction to receive stETH in your wallet.
4. Step 4: Hold stETH to earn staking rewards automatically, or use stETH/wstETH in DeFi protocols for additional yield.

There is no minimum stake amount with Lido, unlike solo staking which requires 32 ETH. This makes Ethereum staking accessible to everyone.

How to Get a Lido Wallet?

LDO and stETH are ERC-20 tokens stored in any Ethereum-compatible wallet:

MetaMask

MetaMask is the most common wallet for interacting with Lido. It supports both stETH and wstETH, and connects directly to the Lido staking interface.

Hardware Wallets

Ledger and Trezor hardware wallets support stETH and LDO. Connect through MetaMask for secure staking and DeFi interaction.

Other Wallets

Any Ethereum wallet that supports ERC-20 tokens works with Lido, including Coinbase Wallet, Rabby, and Trust Wallet.

Lido Resources

• Lido Official Website
• Lido Staking App
• Lido GitHub
• Lido Documentation
• Lido Blog
• Lido Twitter
• Lido Reddit
• Lido Discord
• Lido Analytics (Dune)

How to Buy LDO?

LDO is available on major exchanges:

Centralized Exchanges

LDO can be purchased on Coinbase, Binance, Kraken, OKX, and other major exchanges with fiat or crypto trading pairs.

Decentralized Exchanges

LDO can be purchased on Uniswap, Curve, and other DEXs by swapping ETH or other tokens.

Note that buying LDO gives you governance rights over the Lido protocol. To earn staking yield, you need to stake ETH through Lido to receive stETH.

Latest Lido News

Lido remains the dominant liquid staking protocol with the largest share of staked ETH. Key developments include ongoing improvements to the node operator set for greater decentralization, growth of stETH and wstETH usage across DeFi, and governance discussions about the protocol's role in Ethereum's staking ecosystem.