The P2P team managing Lido Finance’s deployment on Solana has submitted a funding proposal to the Lido DAO community. The team is seeking $1.5 million to sustain and expand the project, thereby avoiding the possibility of ceasing operations.
A financial lifeline for continued development
The P2P team has outlined a comprehensive budget for the next 12 months, which includes a development retainer of $200,000 per quarter, an annual marketing budget of $600,000, and $100,000 annually for customer support. In return for this financial backing, the team aims to capture more than 1% of Solana’s staking market share and further develop the product.
Since taking ownership of Lido on Solana from Chorus One in March 2022, the P2P team has made significant strides in both product and business development. They have updated the smart contract and reworked the frontend user experience, among other achievements. However, without the requested financial support, the team believes that achieving even a 2% market share in the current Solana market seems improbable.
The sunsetting scenario: A last resort
If the Lido DAO community cannot provide the requested financial support, the P2P team has proposed initiating a sunsetting process, similar to what happened with Lido on Polkadot and Kusama. This would involve gradually discontinuing support for Lido on Solana by February 2024. The sunsetting process would include steps like halting new staking deposits and voluntary node operator off-boarding from the pool.
Lido Finance is a dominant player in the liquid staking market on Ethereum, with $14 billion in total value locked. However, its presence on Solana is comparatively smaller, with about $50 million in locked value. The project also faces stiff competition from other players in Solana’s liquid staking niche, such as Marinade Finance and Jito.