Lido Slashes 15% of Staff, Cites Operational Cost Concerns

One of the leaders in the liquid staking scene has undergone a cutback in its workforce necessary to fuel further development.

It is unusual for such events to occur when the markets are booming, but it is sometimes inevitable.

Toning Down for Sustainability

One of the co-founders of the Ethereum staking protocol, Lido, Vasiliy Shapovalov, shared the unfortunate announcement on the social media platform X earlier today. Several people have already commented and offered to help those who have lost their jobs.

“This decision was about costs — not performance,” he noted.

The liquid staking smart contract was founded in 2020 by Shapovalov and two other entrepreneurs, marking the first-ever personnel cutback. The Lido DAO operates the protocol, a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) that provides staking infrastructure for multiple blockchain networks, most notably Ethereum.

The DAO is quite secure, as it is regularly audited by third-party companies to detect and remove vulnerabilities. Users who stake their ETH on the protocol receive stETH (Lido staked ETH) tokens, which represent the overall amount held and determine the size of the rewards from the incentive.

The native currency, LDO, serves as a governance token for the DAO. Holders can participate in administration proposals and vote on key decisions such as board adjustments, integrations, and platform updates.

There has been a recent change to the governance model, with Dual Governance being approved, which gives stETH holders the ability to oppose proposals by delaying them for up to 45 days, a pioneering move not seen in other similar protocols, adding additional security and decentralization to the organization.

Dominating, At First Glance

Shapovalov further stated in his post that:

While it may seem counterintuitive amid a market upswing, the move reflects a deliberate commitment to sustainable growth, operational focus, and alignment with the priorities of LDO tokenholders.

Indeed, if we examine key metrics for the protocol and native token, the sentiment leans more towards expansion than contraction.

According to data collected at the time of printing from DefiLlama, Lido currently has no opposition in terms of the Total Value Locked (TVL), which exceeds $31 billion. To compare it with the protocol in second place, Binance Staked ETH has $10.4 billion in TVL.

They also lead in Liquid Staking Tokens (LSTs), holding 8.9 million in staked Ether, compared to the 2.9 million held by the Binance protocol. Additionally, Lido has over 60% of the market share of these tokens.

The governance token, LDO, has also increased by almost 30% over the past month, according to current data from CoinMarketCap.