DeFi Platform Lido to Cease Staking on Polkadot, Kusama in August

Decentralized-finance staking service Lido (LDO) will end its staking program on the Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) blockchains on Aug. 1, according to a blog post by pseudonymous Lido developer MixBytes.

MixBytes gave several reasons for stopping the service, such as adoption and growth not meeting the "business case expectations to sustain investment."

"Challenged macroeconomic factors and adjacent lack of liquidity in Polkadot's DeFi ecosystem undermined the value proposition of liquid staking," MixBytes wrote.

Lido is a liquid staking protocol that allows users to use staked ether (stETH) on other protocols and blockchains while reaping the staking rewards.

Deposits are no longer being accepted on Polkadot and Kusama, and on June 22, all assets will be automatically "unstaked." The official termination date is Aug. 1.

In total, there is $4 million worth of staked DOT tokens on Lido and $75,000 worth of KSM.

The LDO token is up by 19% over 24 hours at $2.44. KSM rose 10%, and DOT advanced 7%.

Edited by Sheldon Reback.

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Oliver Knight

Oliver Knight is a CoinDesk reporter based between London and Lisbon. He does not own any crypto.

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