Lido Axes 15% of Workforce in Bold Cost-Cutting Move—Is DeFi Growth Stalling?
Lido Finance just made the crypto equivalent of a corporate bloodbath look routine. The liquid staking giant slashed 15% of its staff—no sugarcoating, no 'restructuring' euphemisms. Operational costs bit harder than a bear market.
The DeFi Domino Effect
When the protocol controlling a third of all staked ETH tightens its belt, wallets clench across the sector. Are we watching efficiency gains—or early tremors of a DeFi winter 2.0?
VCs Hate This One Trick
Turns out even crypto unicorns can't outrun basic math. Revenue projections meet reality, and suddenly those 'lean teams' investors love get a whole lot leaner. Who needs office perks when you've got memecoin rallies?
The real question: Is this a tactical retreat or the first crack in liquid staking's armor? Either way, the suits win—your gas fees just paid for someone's golden parachute.
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.
