Liquid staking protocol Lido Finance appears to have benefited most from the Ethereum merge in September, with its total value locked (TVL) now sitting at the top position among other decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.
According to data from DefiLlama, Lido’s liquid staking protocol now commands $5.9 billion in TVL, overtaking MakerDAO’s $5.89 billion and AAVE’s $3.7 billion.
However, these rankings have since been disputed by MakerGrowth, which claims that DefiLlama “does not include a number of different collateral options that account for more than $1 billion of TVL.”
In a statement to Cointelegraph on Jan. 4, MakerGrowth explained the missing figures include its GUNI USDC/DAI LP tokens which account for $446 million in TVL, Monetalis Clydesdale short-term bond ETFs which make up $500 million in TVL as well as the participation in loans originated by Huntingdon Valley Bank, which accounts for another $100 million in TVL.
“MakerDAO is in contact with DeFiLlama to update this information,” it added.
Lido now has the highest TVL of any DeFi protocol. pic.twitter.com/2xsM3lVGVl
— Patrick | Dynamo DeFi (@Dynamo_Patrick) January 1, 2023
According to Lido Finance’s website, as of Jan. 2, had $5.8 billion Ether (ETH) staked. Meanwhile, there was around $23.2 million staked in Solana (SOL), $43.9 million in Polygon (MATIC), $11 million in Polkadot (DOT) and $2.2 million in Kusama (KSM).
Lido’s model allows users access to liquid Ether staking without committing to the traditional 32 ETH minimum.
Blockchain data analytics from Nansen in December noted that staking solutions such as these had been in high demand since Ethereum’s shift to proof-of-stake (PoS).
It’s report highlighted the impact of the Merge in introducing staked ETH as an out-and-out cryptocurrency-native yield-bearing instrument that has quickly outstripped other collateralized yield-bearing services.
Lido appears to have benefitted from this, as its fee revenue has been directly proportional to Ethereum PoS earnings since Lido sends received Ether to the staking protocol.
In Nov. 2022 that Lido said it has been collecting $1 million in fees every day since Oct. 2022.
Related: 5 altcoin projects that made a real difference in 2022
Meanwhile, the governing body of the Maker protocol MakerDAO saw its revenue decline to just over $4 million in Q3, an 86% plunge from the previous quarter, according to a Messari statement in Sept. 2022, citing few liquidations and weak loan demand as the reasons for the decline.
In that same month, Lido held the most amount of staked ETH among DeFi, with 31% according to Nansen in September, which is a significant amount compared to major crypto exchanges Coinbase and Kraken, holding 15% and 8.5%, respectively.
Update Jan. 5, 8:25 am UTC: Added a statement from MakerGrowth sent to Cointelegraph regarding DefiLlama’s TVL data.
