LDO
Lido · ETH liquid staking
Score qualifies for T3; held by Value engine 1 (needs 2).
Key facts
- Circulating 829.6M, 83%
- Locked or unvested 170.4M, 17%
- Max 1.00B
Market data: CoinGecko, Oct 24, 2026. Scores reviewed Oct 23, 2026.
Assessment
Lido's revenue link is conditional and treasury-bound: NEST, live since Aug 14, 2026, routes half of staking revenue above a $40M/yr baseline into LDO purchases capped at $10M/yr, but revenue runs ~$27M annualized, so it has bought nothing, while a separate discretionary program added $7.06M of LDO to the treasury. Supply is fixed at 1B with zero issuance, and minting needs an on-chain LDO vote. Investors, early developers, founders and signers took 63% with no public sale. Core upgrades pass an Aragon vote and the Dual Governance timelock, but treasury actions like NEST sit outside it. Its engine turns on an adopted burn or distribution to holders.
How value reaches holders
NEST (LIP-36, live Aug 14, 2026): a daily rule-based check routes 50% of the DAO's staking-revenue surplus above a $40M/yr baseline into LDO purchases via CoW Swap, capped at $50K/day and $10M/yr, proceeds to the DAO treasury (not burned or distributed). Inert so far: revenue (~$27M annualized) sits below the baseline, roughly ETH under $2,700. A separate discretionary treasury program bought $7.06M of LDO (Jun 1 to Sep 25, 2026)
Score anatomy
Demand
18 / 45: the stronger of two routes, plus adoptionWhy would anyone hold it: does value reach the token, and is the network or product used today?
Small or discretionary flows, plumbing under 25%, or buy-and-hold into a treasury
$25-100M/yr
Governance token; ~$0.3M of LDO supplied on Aave v3, immaterial.
Trading onlyhigh confidenceHow this is scored
Lido TVL $23.2B, ~43% of liquid staking and 2.6x Binance staked ETH, with $594M fees TTM (-33%); slowly losing share, so leader rather than reference
Leader: a top-three network or product in its category by use, holding or gaining sharehigh confidenceHow this is scored
Two routes, the stronger counts
Soundness
19 / 40Can a long-term holder trust the rules: supply, float, distribution and control?
Fixed 1B with zero issuance; the MiniMe token can mint only through the Aragon token manager after an on-chain LDO vote.
Under 1%/yr net without a hard cap, a hard cap with halvings issuing 1-3%/yr, or zero issuance where binding on-chain token governance could vote to mint morehigh confidenceHow this is scored
Float 83% (829.6M of 1B); vesting ended in 2022 and the DAO treasury holds the rest with no release schedule.
0.5-1.5% per month, or large foundation or treasury holdings without a schedulehigh confidenceHow this is scored
Investors 21.86%, initial Lido devs 20%, founders and future employees 15%, validators and signers 6.5%: 63%; the 36% DAO treasury moves by Aragon vote; no public sale
Insiders received over 50%, or one organization directs over 30% todayhigh confidenceHow this is scored
Lido core upgrades pass a ~5-day Aragon LDO vote plus the Dual Governance timelock, but treasury and token actions like NEST sit outside it, and GateSeal committees can pause withdrawals
Attack cost $10-100M, an unexploited soundness bug in the last 24 months, or upgrades by a security council or governance with under a 7-day exit windowmedium confidenceHow this is scored
Durability
8 / 15Is it big, proven and reachable by institutions?
$321.0M market cap (band 3), $57.0M/day median volume (band 4), no flags.
Mid-cap: $250M-1B market cap and $10M/day+How this is scored
Launched Dec 2020 (5.8 years); fell ~95% ($7.3 Aug 2021 to $0.40 Jun 2022); Lido has had no $50M+ exploit.
5-8 years and survived an 80%+ drawdownhigh confidenceHow this is scored
Valour Lido DAO ETP in Europe; no US spot ETF trading.
OTC trust, non-US product, or a pending US filinghigh confidenceHow this is scored
What would move it up
To reach T3 Mixed, one gate is still open:
- Value engine 1needs 2(open)
- Score 45gate 40(met)
- Adoption 4gate 2(met)
- Supply 4gate 1(met)
Tier outlook
Could move up ↑low likelihood
- Holder routing rises to 3 if an adopted burn or distribution sends LDO to holders rather than the treasury
- Holder routing: NEST's first purchase needs DAO revenue above ~$109K a day, roughly ETH at $2,700
- Revenue falls to 2 if trailing revenue slips under $25M (~$27M annualized)
- Holder routing: votes raising the $10M cap, lowering the $40M baseline or activating LP mode
Compare with
How the ranking works and how LDO compares: see the full ranking. This entry as JSON:
GET https://tokens.10102.io/api/v1/tokenomics?symbol=LDO