Justin Sun, the co-founder of Tron, recently withdrew 30,000 ETH, equivalent to approximately $56 million, through two addresses via Lido, a liquidity staking service provider, according to Lookonchain.
As a result of this move, Sun’s Ethereum stake via Lido now stands at 263,294 ETH, with a value of $491.6 million at current rates.
It was observed that between February 25 and 27, Sun had staked 288,100 ETH, worth $538 million, and earned 5,194 ETH, or $9 million.
This resulted in an average daily earnings of 38 ETH, or $72,000, based on the annualized percentage yield (APY) offered by Lido for Ethereum stakers, which is around 4.87%.
The specific reasons behind Sun’s withdrawal of 30,000 ETH from Lido are not clear. It could signify his intention to sell some of the ETH, transfer it to a different staking platform, or even run his own private Ethereum validator node.
Despite Sun’s unstaking and transfer of coins, he still remains one of the largest stakers at Lido, accounting for more than 9% of the total ETH staked. While this move may raise concerns, ETH prices remain steady as of July 10, nearing the $1,900 mark.
Contrary to initial fears before the Shanghai upgrade in mid-April, the number of users staking ETH continues to rise. Data shows that over 21 million ETH has been locked by more than 657,000 validators as of July 10.
With the implementation of the Shanghai upgrade, ETH holders who staked at least 32 ETH in the Beacon Chain since December 2020 are now able to withdraw their assets.
Despite concerns that more coins would be withdrawn and sold in the spot markets, potentially impacting ETH prices, more validators have joined and more coins have been locked on the Beacon Chain and other staking solutions.
However, it’s worth noting that in early June, the United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed lawsuits against crypto exchanges Binance and Coinbase, alleging that certain proof-of-stake coins, including Cardano’s ADA and Algorand’s ALGO, were unregistered securities. This may have implications for coin staking in the future.
Lido, as the leading staking provider for ETH, currently holds the largest share of total value locked (TVL) in decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols, with over $14.6 billion in assets under management, most of which are in ETH.
