Lido lets Ethereum holders earn staking rewards by depositing ETH to receive stETH, a liquid receipt that accrues rewards in real-time. Lido coordinates validators who run the actual staking infrastructure.
v3 with modular stVaults launched 30 Jan 2026; 9.8M ETH (~23% of total staked) as of October 2026.
Checked 10 Oct0 updates this week
A user sends ETH to Lido's smart contract, which mints and returns stETH in a 1:1 ratio (before rewards).
Lido accumulates deposits and allocates them to node operators who run Ethereum validators.
Validators earn ~2-3% annual rewards by proposing blocks and attesting. Rewards accrue directly to stETH holders.
Since stETH is an ERC-20 token, users can trade it, use it as collateral in DeFi, or swap it for ETH on decentralized exchanges.
| Spec | Lido stETH / Staking |
|---|---|
| ETH staked | ~9.8M ETHR (reported) |
| Share of all staked ETH | ~23%R (reported) |
| Total value locked (USD, at $2.7k/ETH) | $26.2BE (estimated) |
R reported by the company · E our estimate
Lido DAO / Lido Finance
Liquid staking, ETH staking, stVaults, DAO governance
Lido is a liquid staking protocol that lets users earn Ethereum staking rewards without running validators, by converting ETH to stETH. It is the largest staking pool for Ethereum, and in early 2026 released v3 with modular stVaults architecture.
