Lido Finance Expands Its Multichain Strategy by Deploying stETH on Optimism

Lido Finance, the largest DeFi platform by assets under management, is expanding. The liquidity staking platform said it now supports the deployment of its stETH

Lido Finance, the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) platform by assets under management, has now expanded its services to layer-2 scaling solution Optimism. This move will enable Lido users to benefit from daily staking rewards while deploying their stETH tokens.

According to a blog post by Lido Finance on October 15, the platform’s value-accruing stETH token is now available for deployment on Optimism. This integration will allow Lido users to enjoy daily staking rewards, lower gas fees and a seamless bridging experience to access other multichain opportunities.

The liquidity staking platform is expanding its presence in line with its multichain strategy. By offering stETH and wstETH on multiple layer-2 platforms on Ethereum, including Arbitrum, Lido is offering users a more flexible way to stake their ETH.

Since Ethereum layer-2 solutions are designed to be scaled, all transactions will be cheap. Lido Finance is one of several liquidity-staking platforms that allow users to stake their ETH and earn a yield. This became possible after Ethereum’s successful migration from a proof-of-work consensus to a staking system in 2022.

Once developers powered down the proof-of-work system, the network was migrated to the Beacon chain. In this new chain, validators secured and processed all transactions. With validators in the equation, those who sought to operate full nodes and compete for a part of the 3 ETH block reward and fees had to lock in 32 ETH. This threshold was out of reach for most users.

However, Lido Finance allows users to stake ETH without having the 32 ETH required to run a full node. Lido’s stETH token accrues a value that increases over time, and wstETH is a wrapped version of stETH that can be used across multiple layer-2s.

According to DeFiLlama data on October 16, Lido Finance had a total value locked (TVL) of over $25 billion. In the last year alone, the protocol has generated over $845 million, with total revenue since launching exceeding $1.8 billion.

While the protocol helps secure the Ethereum mainnet, ETH holders of several layer-2s, including Arbitrum, Base, Linea, and Scroll, can stake directly from these off-chain solutions.