Liquid staking options comparable to Lido and Rocket Pool now have extra complete worth locked (TVL) than decentralized exchanges (DEXs), making them the highest class of DeFi protocols, in accordance with information from crypto analytics platform DefiLlama.

TVL is a metric that measures the greenback worth of all cryptocurrencies locked inside a protocol’s good contracts.

Liquid staking protocols have only recently taken the highest spot. On April 13, there was solely $17.19 billion of crypto locked in liquid staking contracts, in comparison with $18.89 billion in DEXs, in accordance with archived info. Nonetheless, DEXs have skilled a $1.66 billion decline to $17.2 billion, whereas liquid staking options have skilled a $280 million enhance to $17.47 billion, giving them the highest spot.

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Liquid staking protocols are staking swimming pools that stake crypto on behalf of customers. These protocols additionally difficulty tokens to customers that symbolize the particular person’s deposited crypto. As a result of these tokens can be utilized in DeFi apps, liquid staking protocols enable customers to each concurrently stake their cash and use them in different purposes.

In line with DefiLlama’s Might 1 information, Lido (stETH) remains to be the highest staking protocol with $11.54 billion of cryptocurrency locked inside its contracts. Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether (CBETH) is a distant second with $2.19 billion locked, and Rocket Pool (rETH) is third with $1.46 billion. The remaining protocols have lower than $1 billion of TVL every however add as much as $2.22 billion collectively.

Lido was the primary liquid staking protocol, and it launched in 2020. Liquid staking has grow to be extra well-liked as Ethereum moved to proof-of-stake and allowed withdrawals.