Ten liquid staking protocols hold $45,14 billion, which is 88% of a $51,26 billion category spread across 290 protocols. Lido leads with $23,76 billion, or 46,4% of everything staked this way. The second largest is Binance staked ETH at $9,12 billion, and it is absent from most published rankings of this market. Figures read from DefiLlama on 4 September 2026.
| Protocol | Staked value | Share | Chains | Underlying |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lido | $23,76B | 46,4% | 5 | Ethereum |
| Binance staked ETH | $9,12B | 17,8% | 2 | Ethereum, exchange-run |
| ether.fi Stake | $4,49B | 8,8% | 5 | Ethereum, restaking |
| Sanctum Validator LSTs | $1,55B | 3,0% | 1 | Solana |
| Rocket Pool | $1,28B | 2,5% | 1 | Ethereum, permissionless |
| Kinetiq kHYPE | $1,17B | 2,3% | 1 | Hyperliquid |
| Binance Staked SOL | $1,05B | 2,1% | 1 | Solana, exchange-run |
| Jito Liquid Staking | $1,03B | 2,0% | 1 | Solana |
| StakeWise V3 | $0,91B | 1,8% | 2 | Ethereum |
| Liquid Collective | $0,78B | 1,5% | 1 | Ethereum, institutional |
How this ranking was built
One number sets the order: value currently staked through each protocol, as reported by DefiLlama in its liquid staking category on 4 September 2026. That category held 290 protocols and $51,26 billion. Chain counts are the networks each protocol is live on at that date. The underlying column names the asset being staked and, where it matters, who runs the validators.
Not scored: yield, fee structure, withdrawal queues or validator decentralisation. Those decide whether a protocol suits you and none of them is comparable from a single public figure. Staked value answers a narrower question, which is where the market has actually put its capital.
The second largest protocol is missing from the usual lists
Published rankings of liquid staking in 2026 converge on the same five names: Lido, Rocket Pool, Frax, Coinbase and ether.fi. Set that against the table and two things break. Binance staked ETH holds $9,12 billion, 17,8% of the category and second place, and appears on none of them. Rocket Pool, which appears on all of them, holds $1,28 billion, or 2,5%.
The size gap between those two is seven times, and the rankings order them the other way round. The same lists describe ether.fi as holding $7 to $9 billion; DefiLlama reports $4,49 billion. Every figure in this paragraph can be re-checked in under a minute, which is the only reason to trust it over the alternative.
Concentration is the real story
- One protocol holds 46,4%. Lido alone is larger than the next four combined. For a category built on the argument that staking should not concentrate, that number is the argument against itself.
- Two exchange-run products hold 19,9%. Binance staked ETH and Binance Staked SOL together are $10,17 billion. Liquid staking is often described as the decentralised alternative to exchange staking, and a fifth of it is exchange staking wearing a token.
- The permissionless option is small. Rocket Pool, the protocol that lets anyone run a validator with a partial bond, holds 2,5%. Its design is the one most often cited as the answer to concentration, and the market has allocated it accordingly.
- Solana is a real second market. Sanctum, Binance Staked SOL and Jito hold $3,63 billion between them. That is small next to Ethereum and large enough that a Solana project planning liquidity has three credible venues rather than one.
What multi-chain means here, and what it does not
Seven of the ten sit on a single chain. Lido reaches five and ether.fi five, and those are the two largest genuinely on-chain products. But the pattern from other DeFi categories holds: chain count does not predict size. Kinetiq holds $1,17 billion on one network, more than StakeWise and Liquid Collective combined across three.
What travels between chains is the receipt token, not the stake. The stake stays with validators on the network it secures, and the wrapped claim moves. That distinction matters if you are planning where a liquid staking token needs liquidity, because the venues that must hold it are wherever the token trades, not wherever it was minted. We looked at where those venues are in our list of the top 30 decentralized exchanges.
What this ranking does not tell you
Staked value is a measure of trust already given, not of terms offered. It says nothing about the yield after fees, how long a withdrawal takes when everyone withdraws at once, or how many operators would have to fail before a holder is impaired. A protocol can be large because it is good or large because it was early, and this table cannot separate those.
It also ages. Restaking pulled several billion around between quarters in this category, and a September table will misdescribe December. The reproducible part is the method, not the numbers. If you are bringing a staking product to market rather than choosing one, the adjacent questions sit in our notes on DeFi marketing by protocol type and in the ranking of RWA tokenization platforms by assets.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which liquid staking protocol is the largest in 2026?
Lido, with $23,76 billion staked on 4 September 2026, which is 46,4% of the whole category. Second is Binance staked ETH at $9,12 billion and third is ether.fi at $4,49 billion. The ten largest hold $45,14 billion of a $51,26 billion market spread over 290 protocols.
How large is the liquid staking market?
$51,26 billion across 290 protocols in DefiLlama’s liquid staking category on 4 September 2026. Concentration is extreme: the top ten hold 88% and the single largest holds nearly half. Totals differ between trackers because restaking products are sometimes counted twice, so any figure needs a source and a date.
Is Rocket Pool bigger than Binance staked ETH?
No, and the gap is seven times. Rocket Pool holds $1,28 billion, or 2,5% of the category. Binance staked ETH holds $9,12 billion, or 17,8%. Published rankings frequently list Rocket Pool and omit the Binance product entirely, which inverts the actual order of the market.
Does a liquid staking token on more chains hold more value?
No. Seven of the ten largest sit on a single chain. Kinetiq holds $1,17 billion on one network, more than StakeWise and Liquid Collective hold across three between them. What moves across chains is the receipt token; the stake itself stays with validators on the network it secures.
How much of liquid staking is run by exchanges?
Just under a fifth. Binance staked ETH and Binance Staked SOL hold $10,17 billion between them, which is 19,9% of the category. That matters because liquid staking is usually presented as the decentralised alternative to staking on an exchange, and a large share of it is exchange staking with a token attached.
Related reading
For where staking receipt tokens trade once issued, see our ranking of DEX aggregators by routed volume and the comparison of cross-chain DEX venues.