Lido and ethena surged double digits Friday as both tokens look to return to last week’s highs.
Updated Aug 22, 2025, 8:38 p.m. Published Aug 22, 2025, 3:54 p.m.
Crypto traders bought the dip in several Ethereum staking tokens on Friday, lifting the likes of lido (LDO) and ethena ENA$0.7402 up by 14% and 15%, respectively.
The gains follows a week-long decline that took place alongside a rapid shift in sentiment, which is typically a signal to buy.
Lido and ethena are returning to last week’s highs after an early August rally spurred by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s statement that liquid staking protocols aren’t securities.
The SEC’s statement was viewed as bullish for the decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem, in particular for Ethereum-based protocols that depend on staking mechanisms to generate a yield.
The clarity also opened the floodgates for institutions, with Figment’s dominance over other liquid-staking protocols suggesting that institutional inflows were beginning to drive the sector.
Trading volume for ENA trading pairs doubled in the past 24 hours to $1 billion, while LDO is up by 83% to $256 million, according to CoinMarketCap.
The surge in volume coupled with bitcoin BTC$115,043.91 and ether’s (ETH) ability to hold key levels of support bodes well for the altcoin sector in general, although it’s worth noting that the ether validator queue remains extremely high at 825,580 ETH ($3.8 billion).
When these ether tokens are unstaked, they can either be sold on the open market as a form of profit-taking, or staked elsewhere to generate a higher yield — the former would likely halt any further moves to the upside.
Oliver Knight
Oliver Knight is the co-leader of CoinDesk data tokens and data team. Before joining CoinDesk in 2022 Oliver spent three years as the chief reporter at Coin Rivet. He first started investing in bitcoin in 2013 and spent a period of his career working at a market making firm in the UK. He does not currently have any crypto holdings.
More For You
XRP Surges 9% Before Pullback Caps Rally Near $3
Breakout above $3 triggers five-fold volume spike as Fed policy shift and on-chain activity boost institutional flows.
What to know:
- XRP surged 8.56% during the August 22–23 session, testing resistance near $3.10 after dovish comments from the Federal Reserve Chair.
- On-chain settlement volumes on the XRP Ledger increased by 500%, indicating potential institutional adoption despite ongoing whale distribution.
- Traders are watching if the $3.00 support holds and whether a breakout above $3.10 could lead to further gains.
