Lido’s Ethereum Staking Dominance Slips 9% in 2025 – Will LDO Stage a Comeback After 75% Crash?

Lido’s grip on Ethereum staking loosens as rivals carve out market share—can the DeFi heavyweight recover?

Once the undisputed king of liquid staking, Lido now watches its throne wobble. A 9% market share drop in 2025 sends shockwaves through DeFi circles, while LDO token holders nurse 75% losses. The protocol that pioneered staking-as-a-service now faces its toughest test yet.

Competitors circle like vultures as Ethereum’s staking ecosystem matures. Rocket Pool, StakeWise, and upstarts leverage lower fees and decentralized alternatives. Lido’s first-mover advantage? Evaporating faster than a memecoin’s utility.

The billion-dollar question: Can LDO’s tokenomics—often criticized as ‘VC bait’—fuel a reversal? Or will this become another cautionary tale of DeFi giants failing to innovate? One thing’s certain: in crypto, today’s market leader is tomorrow’s liquidation candidate—just ask the ‘stablecoin’ projects that weren’t.

Source: Dune Analytics

In the past month alone, Ether Fi led with 286.3K staked ETH, while Lido saw 182K ETH outflows.

Surprisingly, this divergence is happening as the overall ETH staking hit a record high, underscoring investor confidence in ETH. 

Assessing LDO recovery potential

On the token market performance, Lido could offer a massive upside in case of a hated rally.

Notably, LDO dropped 75% in early 2025, slipping from $2.5 to $0.6. Although it recovered 60% in Q2, only 16% (160 million LDO) of the total supply was in profit. 

Source: Glassnode

But about 840 million LDO supply was still in loss. Should they wait to break even or turn a profit, the token’s recovery may extend. 

Further evaluation showed that the main on-chain resistance was $1.5-$1.7, according to IntoTheBlock.

Around this zone, about 5.5K addresses bought 167 million LDO, making it a key break-even point for a significant part of the supply. 

Source: IntoTheBlock

At press time, LDO traded at $0.96, meaning a resilient recovery to $1.5 could offer a potential 53% gain. 

However, such a lift-off could offer relatively better returns on Ether Fi compared LDO. According to the Ether Fi/Lido ratio, Ether Fi outperformed LDO by 130% in May.

The ratio has now formed a bull flag pattern, implying a potential 57% relative Ether Fi gain over LDO. 

Source: Ether.Fi/Lido ratio, TradingView