Liquid staking protocols have overtaken decentralized exchanges (DEXs) to become the top category of decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols in terms of total value locked (TVL), according to data from DefiLlama. The total value locked (TVL) refers to the monetary worth of all cryptocurrencies that are held within the smart contracts of a particular protocol. Liquid staking solutions such as Lido, Rocket Pool, and Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether now have a total of $17.47 billion in TVL, whereas DEXs have experienced a $1.66 billion decline to $17.2 billion. Liquid staking protocols act as staking pools that handle the staking of cryptocurrencies on behalf of users, and in addition, they provide tokens that represent the deposited crypto.
These tokens can be utilized in DeFi applications, enabling users to both stake their coins and utilize them in other apps concurrently. Lido remains the top staking protocol with $11.54 billion of cryptocurrency locked in its contracts, followed by Coinbase Wrapped Staked Ether with $2.19 billion locked, and Rocket Pool with $1.46 billion.
