Lido’s $10M Buyback: A Masterplan or a Muddle? 🤔

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Key Takeaways 

Why has Lido jumped on buyback trend? 

To reduce the circulating supply and on-chain liquidity for the token and treasury, as though the market needed yet another reason to ponder the existential crisis of a token trying to outrun its own shadow. 🌀

How did the market react? 

The LDO price dropped, but the accumulation trend signaled long-term bullish conviction-because what says “confidence” like selling off 9% and then whispering, “Don’t worry, it’s just a warm-up!” 😏

Ethereum [ETH]-based staking platform, Lido [LDO], has followed Uniswap’s [UNI] steps and proposed a LDO buyback program, much like a peasant copying a nobleman’s dance… only to trip over their own feet. 🕺

According to the proposal, the program will be funded by staking revenue. But under certain conditions: the ETH price must be above $3k, revenue must exceed $40 million, and the annual buyback will be capped at $10 million-because nothing says “aggressive strategy” like a budget smaller than your cousin’s crypto losses. 💸

The plan follows an anti-cyclical approach, placing more bids in bull markets and fewer during downturns. A strategy so bold, it’s practically a ballet between greed and despair! 🎭

Per the plan, the overall price impact is expected to be about 2% or less, while enhancing liquidity and reducing supply. A feat akin to convincing a sly fox to hand over its prize chicken. 🦊

The voting and subsequent execution of the buyback are expected in Q1 2026. This is a broader trend that has been aggressively adopted by Hyperliquid [HYPE], Pump.fun [PUMP], and now UNI-because nothing bonds a community like everyone chasing the same hare-brained idea. 🐰

Impact on LDO markets

LDO’s price fell 9% following the announcement, tracking a wider market downturn. Despite this, on-chain data showed steady long-term accumulation-because nothing says “I believe in this” like selling your shares to buy groceries. 🛒

Notably, as LDO dropped from $1.5 to below $1 in the past few months, the Supply outside of Exchanges (accumulated LDO) increased by 37 million tokens to 865 million. A numbers game only a mathematician could love! 📊

In other words, long-term investors appeared bullish on the token’s outlook in the medium term. A sentiment as rare as a bear market without a meme coin involved. 🐻

On the traders’ side, Binance’s top traders had increased long positions by 2% to 66% after the update. Collectively, it underscored that shared positive outlook for the token-because nothing unites people like a shared delusion. 🤝

Lido platform traction

Lido launched in 2020, enabling users to stake ETH, earn rewards, and use stETH for DeFi liquidity. A platform so revolutionary, it made centralized exchanges question their life choices. 🤯

At its peak, it controlled over 30% of staked ETH, raising concerns and triggering an aggressive push for more decentralization and competition. Because nothing says “decentralized future” like a platform hoarding power like a squirrel with a Bitcoin ETF. 🐿️

As of the time of writing, the platform controlled 23% of the liquid staking market share and generated $94 million in annualized revenue. Since its launch, the platform has generated a cumulative revenue of $284 million. A financial triumph, if we ignore the small print. 💰

Based on the $10 million annual buyback cap, DeFi analyst DeFi Ignas estimated $4 million worth of LDO would be repurchased annually. That is roughly $333,000 monthly. A sum so modest, it could buy a coffee for every crypto bro who’s shorting the market. ☕

However, critics deemed the targets as relatively low compared to other players, who are eyeing +$30 million in monthly token buys. A disparity so vast, it’s as if one baker sells a loaf for a penny while another sells it for a palace. 🏰

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2025-11-12 13:19