First Mover Americas: Bitcoin Advances Following Reports of RFK Jr. Withdrawal

One year ago, HashKey Capital forecast that ether liquid-staking derivatives would double from their August 2023 total value locked to $44 billion by August 2025. Halfway through, it looks like things are on track. The TVL of Ether LSDs hit $36.25 billion, with Lido claiming a 70% market share, according to data from DeFiLlama. Despite relatively stagnant ETH prices recently, demand for staking continues to rise, with the validator entry queue surging to an all-time high of around 7,400, HashKey Capital analysts wrote in a note to CoinDesk. “However, annualized staking yields have remained at around 3.5% for the past four months. This creates a situation where more validators want to join but rewards are not increasing substantially.”