Following the Lido Staked Ethereum (stETH) de-peg, fears of a repeat of last month’s market crash are circulating. The Lido Staked ETH situation has also seriously affected the leading altcoin project to which it is anchored. So far, Ethereum has slumped 7.56% in the last 24 hours and slumped to the $1,500 level.
What is stETH, which is the subject of the last days?
Lido Finance has a liquid staking feature. This allows users to initially lock ETH to receive the corresponding amount of stETH. Lido Staked ETH is exchanged for Ethereum at a ratio of 1:1. Then stETH finds the possibility to be reused in DeFi. However, it is possible to use each stETH for 1 ETH after the merge.
This means stETH holder users can use ETH only after beacon-chain is launched. Up to that point, the 12.8 million ETH in the ETH2 staking contract are illiquid. Lido owns 32% (4.1 million) of these 12.8 million shares.
The price of ETH staked depends on the market appetite to liquidate the token. In addition, the current volume and liquidity are also effective. In addition, it depends on the chance of successful or delayed merging and the smart contract risk.
Meanwhile, the price of stETH fell 6.03% to $1,495.67 per CoinMarketCap. Whereas, stETH depeg continues to have an impact on Ethereum price, which is down 7.09% to $1,557. stETH hit an all-time high about 7 months ago, similar to Ethereum. Currently, the altcoin is 70% off from the $1,982 ATH level.
Where and how did de-peg start in Lido Staked ETH?
As it is known, Alameda Capital is one of the largest Lido Staked ETH holders. It all started at the end of last week when Alameda Capital sold all its stake in the token. Thursday’s sale totaled a staggering $1.5 billion.
By the way, as we have reported as Kriptokoin.com , there has been a recent development. Trade firm seems to have bought back stETH, albeit at a cheaper price. A crypto trader named Evanss6 stated that Alameda has purchased Lido Staked ETH. Trader made the following statement on the subject:
Alameda seems to be buying stETH from Celsius and then selling ETH. He’s probably getting stETH at a hefty discount.
DeFi platform Celsius is in a precarious situation with a bunch of funds currently locked in the stETH token. The ongoing depeg poses a threat to the platform as it can lead to mass payments. According to experts, this situation is likely to cause another crisis in the crypto ecosystem.
