It looks like the timings for staking Ethereum at Lido have just gotten a whole lot more convenient with their recently announced v2 upgrade. With this new upgrade, Lido is introducing unrestricted withdrawals, as well as the much-anticipated “Staking Router” function. Already, the LDO governance token is hitting the roof and the Ethereum stakers have had plenty to be excited about.
Lido: Unlocking $14B in Liquid Staking Tokens
For the uninitiated, Lido is the leading liquid staking platform on the Ethereum blockchain. It was launched in December 2020 as the first and largest market for liquid staking tokens. To put it in perspective, they currently control 37.7% of all Ethereum tokens that have been staked in staking contracts. Moreover, have a total value locked of $14 billion. In addition, their LDO tokens have also shot up by 44% to $3.04 over the course of the last month.
It is no surprise then that Lido has been voted to deploy their upgrade v2. It starts with a prelim vote by participating LDO token holders that ends on May 15th. The upgrade will go into effect once the Ethereum “Shapella” upgrade is complete, and the audits are completed. With the new update, users will be able to withdraw their staked tokens directly. Furthermore, the Staking Router will help onboard more operators and participants to the platform. It’s making it more decentralized than ever before.
LDO Token Skyrockets: V2 Upgrade Derisks Tech Stack
The news of the upgrade has sent the LDO token skyrocketing, with it gaining close to 16% to a high of $1.89 in the past 24 hours according to CoinGecko. Speaking on the significance of the v2 upgrade, Kydo, the Stanford Blockchain Club VP, expressed that it “derisks the entire Lido tech stack”. This is because it both allows users to enter and exit the staking house. Kasper Rasmussen, the Lido Marketing Lead, also weighed in on the upgrade. He is implying that it is certainly going to reduce the complexity of the staking process. Moreover, provide users with additional options and flexibility.
Ethereum Staking: Lido v2 Upgrade Benefits Users and Exchanges
The v2 upgrade is not just exciting news for users, but also for exchanges like Kraken, Coinbase and Binance. These three who are trailing Lido as the fourth largest entity by ETH withdrawals. By allowing more users to exit and access their funds, Lido is paving the way for profitable trading opportunities. Meanwhile, making the key players in the staking sector even more powerful.
All in all, with Lido’s v2 upgrade, they have taken another step forward towards further decentralization of the network and allowing users to stake and unstake their funds at will. With this new upgrade, there is plenty to be excited about for the Ethereum stakers and the crypto exchanges, and one can only expect LDO and stETH prices to continue to soar.
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