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On July 4, Helio Protocol’s official Twitter account announced that Helio and Synclub have merged into a unified entity to promote the future of LST in the DeFi segment. A foundation is expected to be established this year to jointly manage the two protocols, and if governance tokens are issued, only one token will be used for governance and voting for both entities. An announcement from Helio has made more people turn their attention to the LSTFi field of BNB Chain!
Current status of LSTFi
LST (Liquid staking tokens) is a hot sub-sector in the DeFi track. Especially since the launch of staking ETH withdrawals in April 2023, a large number of innovative protocols have emerged, seeking to integrate LST tokens again or multiple times in DeFi, and providing users with new strategies to earn additional income on top of staking rewards. These re-staking and utilization protocols are LSTFi. In the LSTFi sub-sector, high-quality projects such as Lybra Finance and Pendle have emerged, and their tokens have also performed extremely well in the bear market.
Currently, more than 15.7% of ETH has been staked, of which LST tokens account for 47% of the staked Ethereum. In the past period of time, the TVL of the LSTFi protocol has shown a rapid growth pattern, and the cumulative TVL of the top protocols has exceeded 400 million US dollars, which can be said to have created a new peak in the bear market! LST tokens allow users to obtain staking income without running nodes, and then use the LSTFi protocol to obtain additional profits. This brings more liquidity to the crypto market, more possibilities and a broader market space for DeFi. LSTFi's innovation continues. This is still a blue ocean market waiting to be discovered, and it is expected to become a huge force driving the reappearance of DeFi Summer.
Despite this, most LSTFi protocols are built on Ethereum. Public chains like BNB Chain with high enough TVL and sufficient liquidity are still a green field waiting to be explored!
BNB Chain LSTFi Status
Comparison of top 10 DeFi protocols between BNB Chain and Ethereum
The above picture shows the top 10 DeFi protocols of BNB Chain and Ethereum. It can be seen that the first one in the top ten of Ethereum is the liquidity staking protocol Lido. There are three liquidity staking protocols in the top ten, which basically occupy half of the total value locked in Ethereum DeFi.
The top ten DeFi protocols of BNB Chain are still dominated by mainstream applications such as DEX, lending, Launchpa, etc. There is only one liquidity pledge protocol, Binance staked ETH, which ranks 7th and has a TVL of only 98 million. However, Binance staked ETH supports liquidity pledge of ETH tokens across chains to BNB Chain, not BNB liquidity pledge!
At present, the total market value of BNB on BNB Chain has reached 5.8 billion US dollars, and the TVL locked in the liquidity staking agreement is about 150 million, accounting for only 2.5% of the total market value of BNB. The top three liquidity staking providers are Ankr, Stader, and pSTAKE. The first-ranked Ankr TVL is only about 51 million US dollars.
From the above data, we can see that the staking rate of BNB Chain has a huge room for growth compared with Ethereum. Due to the limitation of the total value of the stake, the LSTFi protocol of BNB Chain is still in a wild state. A phenomenal application is needed to drive the construction of BNB Chain LSTFi!
Helio Protocol + Synclub ignites BNB Chain LSTFi
Helio Protocol is built on the native protocol of BNB Chain. Its main product is HAY, a decentralized stablecoin supported by over-collateralization and liquidation mechanisms. Users can borrow HAY at a certain ratio by staking BNB for liquidity mining, staking, trading, storage, etc. Helio earns certain income through BNB liquidity staking!
Synclub is a professional proof-of-stake infrastructure provider and validator for various blockchains, providing liquidity staking services for BNB Chain, Cosmos Hub, and Polkadot, with more blockchains in the pipeline. Synclub currently manages more than $240 million in total assets and is the fourth largest validator on the BNB chain, accounting for 4.12% of the total BNB staked.
The merger of Helio Protocol and Synclub will be able to fill a series of gaps in the BNB Chain LSTFi ecosystem. The combination of the CDP stablecoin protocol and the liquidity staking protocol will be able to provide BNB Chain users with a seamless LSTFi experience while improving the user experience and influence of the protocol!
After the merger, users can stake BNB on Synclub to get SnBNB, and continue to stake SnBNB on Helio Protocol to mint HAY, use HAY for liquidity mining, or use HAY to buy BNB and stake again, thereby taking staking income to new heights! With Synclub's expertise and multi-chain deployment, Helio Protocol will be able to more easily integrate multiple chains, provide stablecoin users with seamless use of HAY, and support the staking and minting of more LST tokens. Thereby improving the security and stability of the protocol! Synclub users can also quickly and easily stake LST tokens to mint stablecoins and gain more income opportunities. In addition, Helio Protocol is also looking to add more unique practical features to SnBNB and HAY.
BNB Chain LSTFi The future is here
The most important suite in the LSTFi ecosystem, the Liquidity Staking Protocol and the CDP Stablecoin Protocol, will join forces to provide a strong LSTFi foundation for the on-chain ecosystem. With the superior composability and scalability of BNB Chain, there will be more innovative gameplay and use cases on the chain in the future. The merger of Helio Protocol and Synclub sends us a signal that the future of BNB Chain's LSTFi is here. If you missed Ethereum, don't miss BNB Chain again!
