Lido DAO Token also known as $LDO is the governance token of the Lido DAO which governs the Lido protocol. Lido is a liquid staking solution for Ethereum. Lido lets users stake their ETH - with no minimum deposits or maintaining of infrastructure - whilst participating in on-chain activities, e.g. lending, to compound returns. LDO is an ERC20 token granting governance rights in the Lido DAO.
In this brief publication, we want to know who the top $LDO holders are and whether they received the $LDO airdrop. The bar chart below shows the top 20 $LDO holders as of May 31, 2022.
The top 20 wallets hold between 5k $LDO to 1.75M $LDO. A preliminary search on Etherscan reveals that the top $LDO holders are dApps and Decentralized Finance (DeFi) protocols. Here are some of the notable holders:
- zkSync
- Compound Governance
- Sybil Delegate
- Polygon (Matic): ERC20 Bridge
- Nexus Mutual: Community Fund
- Ribbon Finance: stETH Covered Call Vault
Next, we want to know whether these top holders received airdrops or they bought the tokens. Our search reveals that neither of the addresses in the top 20 received airdrops which leads us to conclude that their $LDO tokens were bought on secondary markets.
At the end of our investigation, we have learned that DeFi projects are the major holders of the $LDO and they did not receive the tokens via airdrop.