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The weak point of the project’s token economics is that LDO is a governance token. It doesn’t entitle holders to a share of the generated yield or fees. Moreover, the token has additional inflation from investor token unlocking until May this year.
Technically, the LDO token broke above the short-term resistance of around $1.17 with significant buying volume. Bulls will likely target $1.80, capitalizing on the hype around the Shanghai upgrade.
The token is heavily shorted in the futures market after the recent 26% rise in its price since Jan. 1. The funding rate for LDO perpetual swap turned negative with a large magnitude, providing an opportunity for a further uptrend in a short-squeeze. The current support levels for LDO are $1.17 and $1.
Rocket Pool (RPL)
Rocket Pool is similar to Lido, albeit smaller in size. The market capitalization to the staked Ether ratio of the platform is five times larger than Lido, which likely makes it overpriced.
Nevertheless, the RPL token has additional utility besides governance as an insurance token for users. Node operators stake RPL as insurance, where users receive the staked RPL in case of losses due to the operator’s fault.
The Ethereum Merge high of RPL in September 2021 was $34.30. Since the start of 2023, its price has increased by 10%, last trading at $22.40. If buyers are successful in building support above the $20 level, there’s a possibility that RPL can reach last year’s high of $30, which was attained around the Ethereum Merge.
Ankr (ANKR)
Ankr is a blockchain infrastructure provider which offers API endpoints and runs RPC nodes besides staking solutions. Similar to LDO, ANKR is only used for governance purposes.
The token’s price has stayed relatively flat over the last few days. The market capitalization to the staked Ether ratio of Ankr is on the higher side at par with Rocket Pool, which is a negative sign.
Still, if the hype around Shanghai upgrade increases, ANKR can reach August 2021 highs of $0.05. The recent breakdown level of $0.03 will act as resistance for buyers. Currently, the token is trading around $0.015.
Stakewise (SWISE)
Stakewise offers the highest staking yield of 4.43%. Its governance token is comparatively less inflated than RPL and ANKR in the market capitalization to staked Ether ratio, making it cheaper than RPL and ANKR.
However, the token distribution is adversely skewed towards private investors and the founding team, which have 46.9% of SWISE’s total supply. According to data from Nansen, wallets identified as “smart money” have been slowly accumulating SWISE since April 2021.
The Ethereum Merge high for SWISE was $0.23, which will be the likely target for buyers. The support lies near 2022-lows around $0.07.
Shared Stake is flagged red because the protocol was suspected of an insider exploit, which caused a 95% decline in the token’s price in June 2021. The high staking return of the Shared Stake compared to others is also an eyebrow-raising detail to take note of. On the other hand, Cream Finance has discontinued its Ether staking service.
The upcoming Ethereum Shanghai upgrade provides an opportunity for the liquid staking space to grow. Lido DAO is the clear leader in this space with an optimum market price. The de-risking of ETH staking and hype around the event could translate to a series of rallies that could push the price of LDO and other liquid staking protocols back to their Merge highs from last year.
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