Over the past 30 days, the total value locked (TVL) of Lido Finance’s liquid staking protocol has increased by 10.57%, with 7.56% of that growth occurring over the past 7 days. The protocol’s dominance in decentralized finance (defi) has also increased, with its TVL accounting for 19.08% of the $49.66 billion locked in defi today. While the rising Ethereum price has contributed to the increase in TVL, Lido’s liquid staking program has reportedly received a total deposit of at least 303,000 Ether from Tron founder Justin Sun.
On-chain data shows that Tron founder Justin Sun has enhanced Lido’s TVL
Lido, a liquid staking protocol, rose 7.56% in the past week with a Total Value Lock (TVL) of$9.48 billion as of March 2, 2023. Lido’s web portal,lido.fishows that $9.3 billion of TVL consists of Ethereum (ETH) deposits; the total value locked to the Lido, including crypto assets such as SOL, MATIC, DOT, and KSM, represents 19.08% of the $49.66 billion locked to the Defi today
Lido is currently the largest defi protocol in TVL, followed by Makerdao, Curve, and Aave. Of the 7,607,536 Ether ($12.44B) locked to liquid staking platforms, Lido dominatesaccounting for 74.87%
, followed by Curveand Aave. Liquid staking protocols followed by Lido, Coinbase’s Wrapped Ether protocol, Rocketpool, Frax Ether, and Stakewise.
One of the factors contributing to the increase in locked value is the 3.8% increase in the price of ether against the US dollar, contributing to the increase in the value of Lido’s staked ether (STETH). However, the protocol also saw a significant influx this week, with on-chain data showing that Tron founderJustin Sunostensibly deposited at least 303,000 ether into Lido.
Bitcoin.com News reported on the first 150,000 ether allegedly deposited by Tron’s founder. Peckshield, a blockchain analysis and security auditing firm, notedthat after the 150,000 ether deposit, an address labeled with Sun’s name added more Ethereum to the Lido protocol. Including the initial and subsequent deposits, some have estimated that the Tron founder’s inflow into Lido amounted to210,100 ether
but according to transaction data shown by the on-chain analysis tool. Arkham Intelligencemay exceed ETH. According to Arcam’s transaction analysis, Sun holds a total of 303,660 STETH, which is worth $494 million based onSTETH exchange rates on March 2, 2023.
According to Sun’s labeled address, in addition to STETH, he also holds 25,657 ethereum (ETH), worth $41.64 million; Lido currently offers an estimated annual percentage yield (APY) of 4%. This means that if the address is Sun’s, Tron’s founder is earning 4% interest on the nearly $500 million in ethereum wagered.
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