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Concerns regarding Ethereum's decentralization have been raised since 2022 due to Lido Finance's increasing market share in Ethereum staking. Lido is a staking protocol that collects substantial amounts of Ethereum from users. As of September 2023, it accounted for nearly one-third of all ETH staked. Many argued that this posed a significant risk to Ethereum's credible neutrality, or the idea that no one party should have undue influence over the network.
Though Lido did not directly own these holdings, Ethereum would effectively become a semi-centralized network with a sizable fraction of nodes managed under its supervision. But it seems like the tide has turned. The proportion of Ethereum staked via Lido has plummeted to about 27.97%. With this cut, Ethereum is progressively moving back toward a more decentralized organization.
There was a worry that Lido would control the network's validation and governance procedure, but this has decreased significantly. Even though Lido is still a significant player, this decrease ensures that Ethereum's decentralized nature is maintained by distributing staking power more fairly among various entities. Ethereum has been having difficulty regaining traction in terms of price.
As for price performance, Ethereum is trading near $2,400, and overall market sentiment is still cautious. Recent resistance to Ethereum's attempt to break out above $2,500 caused a retreat. Ethereum would need to retake the $2,600–$2,700 range with significant volume, indicating that buyers are reentering the market for a bullish continuation.
For now, things are not too great for the second-biggest cryptocurrency in the world, but the healthier holders' compositions and new development might finally make it a stronger asset that once dominated the altcoin market.