Liquid Staking TVL Hits Record $86B amid ETH Rally and Growing Institutional Adoption

Liquid staking protocols surged to a record of over $86 billion in total value locked (TVL) yesterday, Aug. 14, according to DefiLlama, marking a new high for the sector as demand for staking grows.

Today, the total liquid staking TVL stands at just over $81 billion, with over $62 billion on the Ethereum network.

The new ATH figure represents over 50% of total decentralized finance (DeFi) TVL, which currently stands at around $164 billion, per DefiLlama.

The record TVL comes after a period of volatility for both liquid staking and DeFi as a whole, following a sharp decline between December 2024 and April. Experts say the rebound signals growing user confidence in Ethereum’s staking ecosystem and renewed appetite for yield-generating crypto products.

Liquid staking TVL. Source: DefiLlama

Protocol Growth

Liquid staking protocol Lido is leading the growth, with the platform reaching a new all-time high TVL of $41.07 billion this week — nearly half of the entire sector. This represents a 95% surge since early July, when its TVL was approximately $21 billion.

Lido’s native token LDO is currently trading at $1.37, up 21% over the past week and more than 48% over the past month.

Following Lido, Binance Staked ETH holds $14.81 billion in TVL, Rocket Pool has $3.17 billion, and Jito Liquid Staking sits at $2.97 billion, per DeFiLlama.

Liquid staking refers to when crypto holders deposit assets into a third-party liquid staking provider and receive tokens that represent their staked crypto and staking rewards, instead of locking up funds entirely.

ETH Rally and ETF Inflows

Notably, the surge in liquid staking TVL has coincided with a month-long Ethereum (ETH) price and TVL rally, as ETH pushed toward a new all-time high in recent days. ETH is currently trading around $4,400, up 37% over the past month.

Last week, The Defiant reported that staked ETH hit a new all-time high of 30%, per Coinbase, suggesting growing long-term confidence in Ethereum. Though as of this week, as ETH tested $4,800 levels, the queue for validators to unstake ETH reached another record high.

Traditional finance (TradFi) activity is helping drive the trend as spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have recorded more than $2.9 billion in net inflowsover the past week, not yet including today’s inflows, surpassing the previous weekly record of $2.1 billion set in mid-July. ETH ETFs also broke their daily inflow record this week, taking in $1.02 billion on Monday, Aug. 11, per data from SoSoValue.

To date, ETH ETFs have reached a total net asset value of $29.22 billion – over 5% of Ethereum’s market cap – with cumulative net inflows totaling nearly $13 billion.

SEC Clarity

Adding to market confidence, earlier this month, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Division of Corporation Finance clarified that, in its view, certain liquid staking activities are not considered securities transactions.

While the statement is not an official SEC ruling, it sparked enthusiasm among investors, especially for institutions looking to participate in staking, and liquid staking in particular.

At the time of the announcement, Marcin Kazmierczak, co-founder of RedStone, called the SEC’s guidance a “watershed moment” for the crypto industry in comments shared with The Defiant.

“The distinction between protocol-driven staking and programs with managerial discretion provides much-needed regulatory certainty,” he explained, adding:

“Liquid staking platforms on Ethereum and other chains have already attracted significant institutional capital, with TVL growing beyond pre-2022 levels. This clarity should accelerate institutional adoption, as firms can now confidently deploy capital without regulatory ambiguity.”

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