Over the last 30 days, the Total Value Locked (TVL) in Lido Finance’s Liquid Participation Protocol increased by 10.57%, with 7.56% of the increase occurring in the last seven 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 rise in ethereum price has contributed to the rise in TVL, Lido’s liquid staking program reportedly received a total deposit of at least 303,000 ether from Tron founder Justin Sun.
Onchain data shows Tron founder Justin Sun bolstered Lido’s TVL
Lido, the liquid stake protocol, saw a 7.56% increase over the last week, with a Total Value Locked (TVL) of $9.48 billion from March 2, 2023. Lido web portal, lido.fishows that $9.3 billion of TVL consists of ethereum (ETH) deposits. The total value locked in Lido, including crypto assets such as SOL, MATIC, DOT, and KSM, represents 19.08% of the $49.66 billion locked in defi today.
Lido is currently the largest defi protocol in terms of TVL, followed by Makerdao, Curve, and Aave. Of the 7,607,536 Ether ($12.44B) locked up in liquid staking platforms, Lido commands 74.87% of the full value. In terms of liquid staking protocols, Lido is followed by Coinbase’s Wrapped Ether protocol, Rocketpool, Frax Ether, and Stakewise.
One factor contributing to the increase in locked value is the 3.8% rise in the price of ether against the US dollar, which has contributed to the increase in the value of Lido staked ether (STETH). However, the protocol has also seen a significant number of entries this week, with on-chain data showing that the founder of Tron justin sun he ostensibly deposited at least 303,000 ethers on Lido.
Bitcoin.com News reported on the initial 150,000 ethers allegedly deposited by the Tron founder. Blockchain security audit and analysis firm Peckshield noted that after the deposit of 150,000 ether, addresses tagged with the Sun name added more ethereum to the Lido protocol. Some people speculated that including the initial deposit and subsequent deposits, the Tron founder’s entry into Lido amounted to 210,100 ether.
However, based on the transaction data displayed by the on-chain analytics tool Arkham IntelligenceSun’s total staked ether may be well over 210,000 ETH. Arkham transaction analysis indicates that Sun owns a total of 303,660 STETH, which is worth $494 million according to STETH exchange rates on March 2, 2023.
In addition to STETH, Sun’s tagged addresses show that he also owns 25,657 ethereum (ETH), worth $41.64 million. Lido currently offers an estimated annual percentage yield (APY) of 4%. This means that if the addresses belong to Sun, the Tron founder is earning 4% interest on nearly $500 million worth of ethereum staked.
What do you think about the Lido deposits reported by Justin Sun and the Lido surge this week? Share your thoughts on this topic in the comments section below.
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