Ethereum staking provider Lido reported a decline in annual revenue, citing the challenging macro environment and competition.
Annual in 2025 reportThe Lido Foundation said the protocol’s total revenue is $40.5 million, up from $52.4 million reached in 2024; There was a 23% decline in revenue on an annual basis (annual).
Lido’s market leader faces headwinds
Commenting on the revenue decline, Lido noted:
2025 took place under reward compression due to staking outflows and a network-wide decline in staking APR.
Regarding staking outflows, the protocol noted that this was further fueled by a structural shift towards exchange and institutional staking.
Capital rotation from simple LST to swap and institutional staking and intensified competition have reduced the size of the segment in which Lido held the category leadership.
Staking demand has increased in recent months, reaching a record high of 30.7% of the total ETH supply (38.2 million staked ETH). The increase was due to Spot ETH ETFs and treasury companies enabling the yield feature for their investors.
In contrast, Lido’s outflows have not decreased even in 2026. Lido led staking in March alone exitsNearly 310 thousand ETH are leaving the protocol.
Despite this, Lido maintained its dominant market share of 24% (8.8 million staked ETH). However, in 2026 the focus will be on diversification.
These will include doubling institutional distribution channels for low-risk staking segments (for example, through WisdomTree Physical Lido Staked Ether), expanding the Lido Earn product, and scaling the validator marketplace.
LDO token alignment plans
Lido also stated that ‘stronger economic alignment’ would be achieved between protocol performance and LDO. According to ongoing discussions, part of the token accrual plan will include automatic token buybacks through a ‘treasury surplus fund’.
This offer It went public last November with a $10 million annual budget for its buyback program. An official plan on the same issue is expected in the second quarter of 2026, but it is not yet known how LDO, the native token of the protocol, will react to the update.
At the time of writing, LDO was trading at $0.299, down 80% from the high of $1.5 in the second half of 2025.
Final Summary
- Lido revenue fell 23% to $40.5 million due to increased staking competition from spot ETH ETFs, treasury firms and centralized exchanges.
- The LDO token alignment and $10 million buyback program is expected to be formalized in Q2 2026.
