Liquid staking protocols like Lido and Rocketpool have experienced an increase in ether deposits over the past 30 days, despite the withdrawal of approximately 332,368 ether, valued at around $699 million, following the Shapella hard fork on April 12, 2023. Since March 14, a total of 281,498 ether worth $592 million have been added to these protocols. As of April 15, 2023, there’s $53.68 billion total value locked (TVL) across various decentralized finance (defi) protocols. Around $16.96 billion or 31% of today’s defi TVL is in staked ether. Lido’s TVL stands at approximately $12.74 billion, accounting for 23.74% of defi’s locked value. The rising price of ethereum (ETH), above the $2,100 per unit range, along with deposits into ETH-based liquid staking protocols have contributed to an increase in value for these platforms.
The TVL in staked ether accounts for over 30% of Defi’s locked value, with Lido leading the pack. For instance, Lido’s TVL has grown by 18.02% over the past 30 days; Coinbase’s liquid staking protocol has risen by 16.51% within the same period. Rocketpool’s TVL has surged by 22.48%, while Stakewise has expanded by 15.83%. Archive data from March 14, 2023, shows that 7,749,372 ETH were locked in liquid staking platforms; as of April 15, that number is up to 8,030,870 ETH – an addition of 281,498 ether in just one month.
Since the Shapella hard fork integration, a total of 332,368 ether has been withdrawn from the validator queue. Current pending withdrawals account for about 1.48 million ether worth of funds. The annual percentage rate (APR) for staking ETH currently sits at around 4.98% today. Presently, the Beacon chain contract holds 18,386,887 ETH, valued at $38.67 billion. Approximately 81% of ETH validators have updated their withdrawal addresses, while 18.5% have not, as per Nansen statistics. The three entities with the highest number of withdrawals are Kraken, Binance, and Coinbase. It is speculated that Kraken and Coinbase have initiated a large portion of these withdrawals due to issues with U.S. regulators concerning liquid staking protocols.
The growth of liquid staking protocols is a topic of interest among cryptocurrency enthusiasts. The increase in value for these platforms can be attributed to the rising price of ethereum and deposits into ETH-based liquid staking protocols. However, regulatory concerns and market volatility may impact their popularity in the months to come. It remains to be seen whether the growth of liquid staking protocols will continue or not.
Jamie Redman, the News Lead at Bitcoin.com News and a financial tech journalist living in Florida, has been an active member of the cryptocurrency community since 2011. He has a passion for Bitcoin, open-source code, and decentralized applications. Since September 2015, Redman has written more than 6,000 articles for Bitcoin.com News about the disruptive protocols emerging today.
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