Lido's Dominance Slips as Bitmine and Coinbase Gain Ground

Lido's market share has been on a decline since August 2025, dropping to 21.18% in the first half of 2026. This decrease can be attributed to the influx of institutional capital into alternative providers like Bitmine and Coinbase, which now hold 11.5% and 10.9% of the market respectively.

The decline in Lido's dominance is further complicated by its own strategy of prioritizing market adoption through fee waivers for stVault pools with balances exceeding 250 ETH. This decision has led to a net loss of $4.45 million due to a $6.06 million loss related to the Kelp project.

The Ethereum validator exit queue reached a peak of 46 days as of September 12, 2026, following an infrastructure provider's decision to exit 1.6 million ETH in validators. This shift toward massive, single-key validators threatens the distributed nature of the network.