The price of Lido DAO (LDO) has rebounded to its three-week high of $2.21 as of May 16, up 40% when measured from its local low of $1.57, established four days ago.<\/p>\n
This impressive double-digit recovery appeared in tandem with other top-ranking crypto assets, including Bitcoin (BTC<\/a>) and Ether (ETH<\/a>). However, LDO has greatly outperformed the broader crypto market (TOTAL), which is up only 4.5% since May 12.<\/p>\n But what are the reasons why Lido DAO is outperforming the rest of the cryptocurrency market right now? Let\u2019s take a closer look at the three biggest factors likely driving up LDO\u2019s price.<\/p>\n The LDO price recovery coincides with the net positive inflows into Ethereum\u2019s proof-of-stake (PoS) contract<\/a> in recent days.<\/p>\n Lido DAO is primarily an Ethereum liquid staking platform. It enables users to pool their funds to become validators on Ethereum, thus bypassing the network\u2019s requirement of depositing at least 32 ETH.<\/p>\n In April, Ethereum underwent a network upgrade called Shapella<\/a>, which supports reward withdrawals from its staking contract. As a result, its PoS contract witnessed days when the amount of ETH withdrawals outnumbered deposits.<\/p>\n For instance, the net ETH staked with its PoS contract was\u00a019.27 million ETH on April 11, a day before the Shapella upgrade. The number fell to 90,704 a week later, followed by a consistent recovery, according to data tracked by Nansen.<\/p>\n As of May 16, the Ethereum PoS contract had over 20 million ETH, underscoring the growing demand for liquid staking service providers like Lido DAO. The price of its governance token, LDO, likely benefited from the narrative.\u00a0<\/p>\n For instance, Lido DAO\u2019s nearest competitor, RocketPool (RPL), has also soared 15% to around $50 when measured from its May 12 low.<\/p>\n It should be noted that Lido DAO did not support full ETH withdrawals. Instead, it issued staked Ether (stETH), theoretically pegged to ETH by 1:1, to users that could be exchanged freely for other crypto assets across exchanges.<\/p>\n But that was until recently.<\/p>\n On May 15, Lido DAO launched the mainnet version of \u201cLido v2<\/a>,\u201d which enables\u00a0Ether stakers to burn their stETH and exit the protocol at a 1:1 ratio. Since the upgrade, LDO\u2019s price has climbed 20%, or half of its 40% rebound thus far.<\/p>\n Related:\u00a0Celsius moves $781M in stETH just as Lido withdrawals open<\/a><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n Lido DAO whales have also supported LDO\u2019s upside move in the days leading up to the Lido v2 launch. And, according to data resource Lookonchain, this may suggest that the \u201cbuy the rumor\u201d scenario may have contributed to the LDO price rally.<\/p>\n Due to the launch of Lido V2, we noticed 3 whales accumulating $LDO<\/a> in the past week.<\/p>\n – 0x9EA7 withdrew 724,822 $LDO<\/a>($1.52M) from #Binance<\/a> at $2.01.<\/p>\n – 0x4E4e withdrew 655,641 $LDO<\/a>($1.38M) from #Binance<\/a> at $1.83.<\/p>\n – 0x9eda bought 570,883 $LDO<\/a> with 974K $USDC<\/a> at $1.71 on May 12. pic.twitter.com\/S0cNUxpLw0<\/a><\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/s3.cointelegraph.com\/uploads\/2023-05\/e67079ec-b9ce-4388-a223-908906c45e31.png\" "\\"\\"")
Ether depositors\u2019 return after Shapella<\/h2>\n
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Lido v2 mainnet launch<\/h2>\n
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