Lido DAO (LDO) has surged 14.95% in the past 24 hours to $1.50, topping CoinMarketCap’s “Top Gainers” list and extending its 7-day rally to a staggering 62%.
The bullish move comes amid a spike in whale activity, surging on-chain volumes, and mounting speculation ahead of the protocol’s first Tokenholder Update Call on August 14.
Whale Buys LDO Amid Governance Hype
Lido Finance remains the second-largest protocol by Total Value Locked (TVL) in the Decentralized Finance space, holding $38.4B in staked assets across Ethereum and Polygon. Its annualized revenue now sits at $96.8M, with incentives at $96.8M and fees close to $1 billion.
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Lido Finance is gearing up for its first Tokenholder Update Call on August 14. The agenda is financial transparency and aligning LDO’s value accrual with protocol success. There are expectations that Lido Labs could announce new decentralized staking mechanisms or capital allocation strategies.
This follows July’s governance moves toward deeper decentralization, a narrative traders love in a regulatory-sensitive environment.
As such, analyst Toptickcrypto called LDO “cheap relative to earnings” with a “huge moat” as the second-largest TVL in DeFi, hinting liquid funds could pile in as Lido explores returning value to tokenholders for the first time.
Adding fuel to the rally, BitMEX co-founder Arthur Hayes bought 424,000 LDO, roughly $556K, alongside $5.29M in ETH on August 10, part of an $8M Ethereum ecosystem buying spree. This high-profile entry has encouraged retail traders, pushing LDO’s 24-hour trading volume up 49% to $527M, according to data.
Lido DAO Price Prediction: LDO Eyes $1.85 in the Near Term
LDO has decisively broken above its 7-day SMA ($1.11) and the key Fibonacci 23.6% retracement level at $1.29, closing in on the 127.2% extension target of $1.62.
The short-term outlook is technically bullish, supported by a “Strong Buy” signal on TradingView’s daily indicator summary (17 buys, 1 neutral, 0 sells).
The 4H Santiment chart shows a sharp vertical breakout, with price decoupling from both the 50-MA and 200-MA, underscoring the strength of this move. However, such parabolic climbs often face retracements.
If the Lido DAO coin holds above $1.50 and breaks $1.62 with volume confirmation, the path to $1.85 is open. Sustained inflows from whales like Hayes, coupled with a positive governance update on August 14, could accelerate a run toward $2.05 in the near term. Continued ETH upside would also benefit LDO due to its staked ETH-denominated earnings.
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