Ethereum’s Liquid Staking: A $3.2B Drama You Can’t Make Up

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So, over the last 14 weeks, a cool $3.2 billion worth of ETH has decided it’s not lazy and wants to go to work. 🙄 It’s like everyone suddenly remembered their ether wasn’t just for buying pictures of monkeys.

Okay, So a Tiny Fraction of All ETH Decided to Get a Job

Roughly 690,000 ETH-which is a number so big it needs its own zip code-has been funneled into 33 different liquid staking protocols. Because why have one option when you can have 33 flavors of slightly confusing financial soup? All this according to defillama.com, which is a website name I did not make up, I swear.

Source: defillama.com (See? I told you.)

And of course, the ecosystem is basically a high school popularity contest. Lido is the head cheerleader with 61% of the market, holding 8.76 million ETH. That’s $41.59 billion. It had a tiny 0.87% dip this week, which is basically like a cheerleader getting a B+ and having a full-on meltdown. Meanwhile, Binance Staked ETH is the quarterback that’s gaining ground, up 3.42% this week. Cool, cool.

Source: defillama.com (The llama does not lie.)

Rocket Pool gets the “participant” ribbon in third place, though it’s slipping a little. Then we have the B-list celebrities: Liquid Collective is just holding steady, and Stakewise V2 has tumbled 16% in a month, which is what happens when you try to follow a viral dance trend. 😬 mETH Protocol is down a whopping 19%-yikes, honey. Did someone say ‘rug pull’? Just kidding! (Mostly.)

Further down we have the guys who showed up to the party after all the good snacks were gone. Coinbase Wrapped Staked ETH is actually climbing, which is like the quiet kid suddenly winning the science fair. Good for you, CB! The rest are just trying to stay relevant, with some posting gains and others posting losses that make you want to look away, like a car crash in slow motion.

All told, 11.86% of all the ETH in the world is now staked. So, almost 12% of people decided to make their crypto work for them. The other 88% of us are still just staring at it, wondering if it’s too late to buy a monkey picture. 🐵

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2025-08-24 18:28