Lido is a liquid staking protocol that lets holders stake ETH and receive stETH, a token that represents the staked position and can be moved, traded, or used across DeFi while the underlying ETH keeps earning validator rewards. It is the largest protocol of its kind by a wide margin.
How does Lido work?
When you deposit ETH, Lido pools it, delegates it across a curated set of node operators, and mints stETH in return. stETH is a rebasing token: your balance grows over time as staking rewards accrue, rather than the price climbing above 1 ETH. Governance and operator selection sit with the Lido DAO.
What does our data show?
- Total value locked of about $23.8B, the highest in our liquid staking set and ranked 2/15 among the DeFi protocols we track.
- Two audits surfaced during our checks.
- Presence across 5 chains, reflecting stETH's broad availability beyond Ethereum mainnet.
- Front-end response time of roughly 628ms in our measurement, on the slower side of the category.
- No dedicated public status page was found, which is why it scores low on our status axis despite leading on scale.
Where does stETH get used?
Because stETH is the most widely integrated liquid staking token, it appears across lending markets, DEX pools, and collateral systems throughout Ethereum DeFi. Many users hold the wrapped, non-rebasing version (wstETH) for protocols that do not handle balance changes well. That depth of integration is part of why the token tends to hold liquidity even in volatile conditions, but it also means stETH is deeply woven into the wider DeFi risk fabric.
What are the risks?
Liquid staking carries layered risk. Smart-contract bugs, oracle failures, or validator slashing could reduce the value backing stETH. On secondary markets, stETH can trade below its underlying redemption value during stress, even though direct withdrawals are supported. Because Lido routes a large share of all staked ETH, its scale also raises ongoing discussion about stake concentration on Ethereum, a governance and network-health concern rather than a defect in the product itself. The relatively slow front-end response we measured is a minor usability note, not a safety issue.
Who is it for?
Lido suits users who want deep liquidity, wide DeFi integration, and the most battle-tested LST available. It is less ideal for those who prioritize a minimal validator footprint, want to avoid rebasing-token accounting, or are uncomfortable contributing to stake concentration. As always, verify contract addresses directly, prefer the official interface, and treat any yield figures you see as variable rather than guaranteed.