by Lydia Ludmila 
Moonbeam – a Polkadot parachain smart contract platform with Ethereum compatibility, has partnered with Lido, a liquid staking derivatives protocol currently live on the Ethereum and Terra blockchains, to bring liquid staking to the Polkadot DeFi ecosystem.
The press release informed that the integration would enable Lido to provide liquid staking to Moonbeam and its Kusama-powered sister network, Moonriver.
It will also allow Polkadot (DOT) users to stake their digital assets while still having access to the liquidity of the staked position, enabling holders to leverage their crypto assets productively.
Liquid Staking Derivatives to Fuel DeFi Growth on Moonbeam
Moonbeam’s founder, Derek Yoo, is convinced that the integration of liquid staking derivatives, like Lido, is expected to significantly increase the total volume of assets coming into the protocol.
As a result, the total value locked (TVL) increases, as well as more transaction growth opportunities for the DeFi protocols running on Moonbeam.
He noted that these liquid staking derivatives are “an essential component to support the growth of the DeFi ecosystem on Moonbeam and Polkadot.”
Yoo added that Moonbeam had been impressed by the experience and technical knowledge of the Lido team, in addition to the rapidly growing popularity of the protocol. He also expressed Moonbeam’s excitement to integrate with them to “bring stDOT and other staking derivatives to the Polkadot ecosystem.”
Lido to Expand its Staking Services Across Major Protocols
Lido claims to be one of the biggest and most widely used liquid staking protocols. The project intends to expand from Ethereum and provide liquid staking on several other blockchain protocols, including Terra, Solana, and many more.
Lido uses Moonbeam as a starting point for its expansion to Polkadot by providing the Ethereum-compatible parachain infrastructure and cross-chain integrations.
The project’s DAO has selected MixBytes, a team of professional blockchain developers, to handle the technical integration for Moonbeam.
MixBytes’ CEO, Misha Putyatin, disclosed that they had been “deeply impressed by the Moonbeam team and ambitions.” This is because the protocol met their technical standards with the EVM smart contracts, cross-chain integration capabilities, and support of its protocol-level dependencies via the DeFi ecosystem. The latter includes stableswap AMMs, lending and borrowing, and other protocols that Lido requires to succeed.
