Lido (LDO) is the governance token of Lido Finance, the largest 'liquid staking' protocol on Ethereum. Staking ETH normally locks it up, but Lido lets you stake and still stay liquid: deposit ETH, receive 'stETH' in return, and that stETH keeps earning staking rewards while you can also trade it or use it across DeFi. stETH became one of the most widely used tokens in DeFi, plugged into lending platforms, exchanges and more. Lido takes a 10% cut of staking rewards, part of which funds its DAO treasury. LDO itself is a governance token — it votes on how Lido is run, but it is not a direct claim on that fee revenue, which is a key nuance.
Where it stands today: Lido is a DeFi giant, with tens of billions of dollars of ETH staked through it and a leading share of all staked ETH — around a quarter, though down from a peak above 30% as rivals and exchange staking gain ground — generating tens of millions in annual revenue. stETH is deeply embedded across the ecosystem. But its dominance is also its biggest controversy: having one protocol control such a large slice of Ethereum staking raises real decentralization concerns, since Ethereum's health depends on no single entity getting too powerful. And LDO holders face the classic question — the protocol earns a lot, but how much of that value actually reaches the LDO token. So today it's the entrenched leader in a critical DeFi category, wrestling with centralization criticism and token value-capture questions.