The Ethereum (Ether) staking market is undergoing a significant shift as Lido, a major player in the space, has seen its market share drop to 29.57%, down from 32% in December 2023.
According to recent data from blockchain analytics company Dune, the decline is attributed to a surge in Ethereum stakers entering the market, which has helped mitigate concerns regarding Lido’s dominance.
Lido’s Staking Market Share Falls
Lido has been a lone player in the Ethereum staking market for some time due to lack of competition in the liquid staking solution space. The platform also offers users the opportunity to earn passive income from their staked assets on other blockchains outside the Ethereum ecosystem including Solana (SOL), adding to its growing dominance.
The protocol’s growing popularity raised concerns from the Ethereum community as it controls more than 33% of the market. The community fears it could potentially manipulate aspects of the Ethereum chain.
However, with the entrance of other major players in the market, Lido’s market share for staked Ether fell below the 30% threshold as of April 4, 2024.
The data from Dune shows that the protocol now has strong contenders which contributes to the ETH staking ecosystem.
Anonymous Entity
Some of these competitors include notable companies contributing to the ETH staking ecosystem such as Binance and Coinbase as well as Ethereum staking platform Kiln.
Coinbase dominates 14.04% of the market share while Binance and Kiln boasts of 3.75% and 3.5% respectfully.
Despite Coinbase and Binance having a fair share of the market, the second largest entity in Ether staking space remains anonymous. Dune labeled the entity which currently holds 16.9% of the market share as “unidentified.”
In total, there are 26 known entities participating in Ethereum staking with lesser market share.
Some of these exchanges include Kraken which boasts 2.4%, Bitcoin Suisse with 1.6% and lastly OKX and Upbit with 1.2% and 1.1% respectively.
Interests in Crypto Staking is on the Rise
The fall of Lido’s staking market share comes at a time when the industry is experiencing increased interest in staking activities as investors explore other opportunities in the industry to earn more income.
Recently, Google Finance data found that crypto staking rewards have surpassed dividends paid by companies in the S&P 500 index. According to the data, the payouts from digital assets staking platforms outperformed that of S&P 500 by 450%.
While the average dividend yield from companies such as Microsoft, Nvidia and Apple stands at 0.71%, 0.56% and 0.02% respectively, crypto staking has an average annual return of 6.08%.
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