Grayscale DeFi fund makes Lido its no. 2 holding

The investment management company has had other DAO tokens in its DeFi fund before, with Uniswap’s UNI being a top asset

article-image

WindAwake/Shutterstock modified by Blockworks

share

Grayscale added lido to its DeFi fund for the first time since the product’s inception in July 2021.

The digital assets manager announced the change Friday. Lido (LDO) is now the no. 2 asset in the Grayscale DeFi fund, making up 19.04% of it. Uniswap (UNI) still reigns supreme accounting for 45.46% of the fund. 

Lido, a liquid staking service, also offers a token that’s meant to make staking on Ethereum cheaper. Lido staked ETH (stETH) is its most popular product and is the seventh biggest cryptocurrency, according to CoinGecko. STETH doing well has made LDO, the governance token associated with Lido, more attractive to investors. 

Grayscale officially included LDO at the end of the day on Thursday to follow its index provider, CoinDesk’s DeFi Select Index (DFX) Grayscale tweeted.

Loading Tweet..

All of CoinDesk’s indexes, including the DeFi index, are reviewed quarterly. If there are changes, they are implemented on the second business day of January, April, July and October. DFX specifically is “designed to measure the market capitalization weighted performance” of digital assets in the DeFi sector.

CoinDesk Indices told Blockworks that LDO met the market cap and liquidity requirements for DFX “for the first time in our April reconstitution.”

“That put LDO on a watchlist for addition and when it again qualified as part of our July reconstitution it was officially added,” CoinDesk Indices marketing head Kim Greenberg wrote in an email.

Chart by David Canellis

The Grayscale DeFi Fund looked pretty similar as of March 15, 2023, with the exception of the current inclusion of LDO. The fund back then still had Uniswap as its largest asset, though it made up 58% of it, a strong majority. 

And when the fund launched nearly two years ago, the three biggest assets were Uniswap, Aave, and Compound Finance (COMP). Over time, Synthetix (SNX) has gained more of a share. 

The DeFi fund is among Grayscale’s smallest products, with $3.1 million in assets under management. In comparison, its flagship product, the Grayscale Bitcoin Trust (GBTC), has over $18 billion in assets. 

The DeFi fund also hasn’t been doing too hot, down over 73% since its launch.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

Research Report Templates.jpg

Research

Bluefin possibly stands at an inflection point. The token is near an all-time low yet the protocol’s spot volume market share and derivatives exchange usage have been increasing month over month since its November launch. Given its current market position and the upcoming upgrades (for both Bluefin and SUI), there may be upside potential before the increased supply growth in December. However, strong opposition from existing competitors (like Cetus and Suilend), as well as new entrants (like Aftermath), pose key challenges to Bluefin’s medium-term success.

article-image

Top Committee Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her opening statement accused Atkins of “helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried”

article-image

Introducing garbled circuits for enhanced privacy and regulatory compliance

article-image

Ross Ulbricht was a freedom maximalist building freedom tech, powered by Bitcoin

article-image

Solana validators can reap benefits including payments, votes and community clout

article-image

Sponsored

WalletConnect is cementing itself as the essential connectivity layer, ensuring wallets remain the entry point for billions of users

article-image

According to a legal filing, Galaxy Digital helped boost the price of LUNA while quietly selling its tokens