What Stake DAO does

Stake DAO is a non-custodial DeFi protocol, operated by the Stake DAO Association under Swiss jurisdiction in Zug, that provides liquid staking infrastructure for governance tokens. Its core product, Liquid Lockers, accepts governance tokens (CRV, YB, BAL, PENDLE, FXN, FXS, SPECTRA, YFI, YND, ZERO, MAV, BPT) and issues liquid sdToken representations that preserve voting power and yield while freeing the underlying capital for other DeFi use. The protocol operates across Ethereum, Arbitrum, Base, Fraxtal, Linea, HyperEVM, Optimism, Sonic, and zkSync Era, with cross-chain interoperability delivered via LayerZero OFT (vsdCRV on Arbitrum) and Chainlink CCIP (SDT bridge).

The platform's supporting products include the vlSDT governance token (flat 1:1 voting power with an 8-week cooldown, replacing the legacy 4-year veSDT lock), a Boost Marketplace and Boost Delegation system for trading voting influence, Yield Strategies and Curated Vaults for yield generation, and Votemarket — an on-chain bounties solution covering Curve, Pendle, Balancer, Frax, and FXN gauge voting. Meta-governance allows Stake DAO's accumulated voting power to be deployed across host protocols. Distribution is fully self-serve and product-led through stakedao.org; there are no sales channels, channel partners, or intermediaries.

Revenue is generated indirectly through protocol product fees (locker operations, rebalancing, managed position fees) and boost marketplace transaction fees, with USDC distributions allocated pro-rata to vlSDT holders via a fee distributor smart contract. There are no direct platform fees on basic locker usage (freemium model). Two security incidents occurred in 2026: a Votemarket oracle exploit in March (~ $175,000 drained from 54 campaigns on Arbitrum/Base) and a vsdCRV infinite-mint exploit in May (~43.8 ETH / ~$91,000 realized loss); both stemmed from peripheral contract vulnerabilities rather than core locker contracts, and both resulted in bridge suspension, backup securing, and committed user compensation. The protocol is governed by a 3-of-5 multisig alongside vlSDT-based on-chain governance, with no disclosed institutional funding, parent company, or venture backing.

Name

Stake DAO

Legal name

Stake DAO Association

Website

https://stakedao.org

Company type

Private

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

Stake DAO is a non-custodial DeFi protocol that provides liquid staking for governance tokens (CRV, YB, BAL, PENDLE, FXS, SPECTRA, ZERO, MAV and others), issuing sdToken derivatives that preserve voting power while unlocking liquidity, complemented by vlSDT governance, Votemarket on-chain bounties, and a Boost Marketplace across nine chains.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Decentralized Finance (DeFi) Liquid Staking

NAICS

Open-End Investment Funds (525910), Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities (522320), Securities and Commodity Exchanges (52321)

SIC

Security & Commodity Brokers, Dealers, Exchanges & Services (6200), Finance Services (6199)

akta.pro primary industry

Liquid Staking & Restaking Protocols (FSADAMAE)

akta.pro secondary industries

DAO Treasury, Governance & On-Chain Finance Tools (FSADAMAL), Delegation, Representation & Voting Power Markets (FSAPAHAG), Governance Frameworks & DAO Tooling (modules, templates, standards) (FSAPAHAC), Staking Pools & Delegation Platforms (FSADAOAJ)

Keywords

• Liquid staking protocol
• DeFi governance tokens
• Yield strategies
• Voting power management
• Cross-chain DeFi

Headquarters

HQ city

Zug

HQ country

Switzerland

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2C

Offering type

Software

Cost components

Technology or R&D, Personnel, Infrastructure, Operations, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. vlSDT Fee Distributions: USDC distributions to vlSDT holders funded by a portion of fees from certain Stake DAO protocol products, allocated pro-rata by the fee distributor smart contract. Distributions are variable and depend on protocol activity.
2. DAO Fee Collection: Protocol collects fees from locker operations, including rebalancing rewards and protocol fees from managed positions. Weekly/monthly/yearly fee projections tracked through the DAO Management interface.
3. Boost Marketplace Fees: The boost marketplace enables sdToken holders to purchase SDT Boost from vlSDT holders, creating a secondary market for voting boost. Platform facilitates transactions between boost providers and seekers.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels6 records

Core offering

Stake DAO is a non-custodial liquid staking platform focused on governance tokens. It converts governance tokens (CRV, FXS, BAL, PENDLE, SPECTRA, YFI, YND, ZERO, MAV, BPT) into liquid sdTokens that maintain voting power and yield while providing liquidity. The platform operates through the Liquid Lockers protocol, with supporting products including Votemarket for on-chain bounties, Yield Strategies, Curated Vaults, vlSDT Boost Marketplace, and cross-chain utilities. The protocol is governed by vlSDT token holders and operates across multiple blockchains.

Product overview

Stake DAO is a non-custodial liquid staking platform focused on governance tokens, operating as a platform with multiple integrated products. The core offering consists of Liquid Lockers, which convert governance tokens (CRV, YB, BAL, PENDLE, FXN, FXS, SPECTRA, YFI, YND, ZERO, MAV, BPT) into liquid sdTokens while maintaining voting power and yield. The vlSDT governance token system provides flat 1:1 voting power with no decay, replacing the legacy vote-escrowed model. Votemarket enables on-chain bounties and direct incentives for liquidity optimization. Supporting utilities include the SDT Bridge (powered by Chainlink CCIP), Zap (powered by Enso), Yield Strategies, Curated Vaults, DAO Management, Strategy Deployment, and Vote Boost Calculator. Meta Governance allows participation in external protocol governance using accumulated sdToken voting power.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Brands

• Votemarket: Fully on-chain bounties solution for optimizing liquidity incentivization across Curve, Pendle, Balancer, Frax, and FXN protocols.
• sdTokens
• vlSDT

Products and services

• Liquid Lockers Non-custodial protocol for governance token staking that converts tokens to liquid sdTokens while maintaining voting power. Users boost yield and voting power while retaining liquidity on their governance tokens. Supports CRV, YB, BAL, PENDLE, FXN, FXS, SPECTRA, YFI, YND, ZERO, MAV, and BPT tokens.
• Votemarket Fully on-chain bounties solution for optimizing liquidity incentivization across Curve, Pendle, Balancer, Frax, and FXN protocols. Enables gauge voting incentives and direct rewards for liquidity providers.
• vlSDT (Vote-Locked SDT) Non-transferable governance token issued 1:1 when staking SDT. Provides flat 1:1 voting power with no decay, USDC fee distributions, and up to 2.5x boost on liquid locker voting power. Features 8-week unstake cooldown with optional early exit penalty decaying from 25% to 0%.
• Yield Strategies Deposit and earn yield using market's most sophisticated strategies across ETH, USD, CRV, crvUSD, and BTC categories with varying APR ranges (up to 102% APR for USD strategies).
• Curated Vaults Auto-compounded vaults built on top of Stake DAO's yield infrastructure, managed by third-party curators.
• vlSDT Boost Marketplace On-chain marketplace where sdToken holders can purchase SDT Boost to amplify staking rewards and voting power, while vlSDT holders can list surplus boost for sale.
• Meta Governance Voting on governance proposals and gauges through decentralized decision-making across Curve, Pendle, Balancer, Frax, and other protocols using sdToken voting power.
• SDT Bridge Cross-chain bridge powered by Chainlink CCIP enabling SDT transfers between Ethereum and BNB Chain with destination chain fees displayed upfront.
• Zap Token swapping feature powered by Enso that enables users to sell select tokens and buy at least select tokens in a streamlined interface.
• vsdCRV Cross-Chain Token LayerZero OFT representing sdCRV on Arbitrum with 1:1 backing by CRV or sdCRV deposited in Curve boosted-vote strategy. Suspended after May 2026 security incident.

Segments1 record

Ideal customer profiles1 record

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration11 records

Feature6 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and infrastructure.

• Curve FinancecoreTechnology or IntegrationPrimary integration partner for liquid staking. Stake DAO's sdCRV is the dominant liquid representation of veCRV. Controls 117.56M veCRV voting power. sdCRV-Governance participates in Curve DAO meta-governance. The protocol generates significant CRV locker activity and manages Curve gauge deployments.
• PendlecoreTechnology or IntegrationLiquid locker for PENDLE governance tokens with 2.14M vePENDLE voting power. Votemarket integration enables Pendle gauge voting optimization.
• BalancercoreTechnology or IntegrationLiquid locker for BAL governance tokens with 317.35k veBAL voting power. Votemarket integration for Balancer protocol governance.
• Frax FinancecoreTechnology or IntegrationLiquid lockers for FXS and FPI tokens. FXS locker on Fraxtal and Ethereum with 1.12M veFXS voting power. sdFXS-Governance participates in Frax governance including FPI wind-down votes.
• SPECTRAcoreTechnology or IntegrationLiquid locker for SPECTRA tokens with 50.84M veSPECTRA voting power. sdSPECTRA-Governance participates in Spectra DAO governance.
• Chainlink CCIPinfrastructureTechnology or IntegrationCross-chain interoperability protocol used for vsdCRV bridging and bridge functionality. Powers SDT bridging between Ethereum and BNB Chain.
• LayerZeroinfrastructureTechnology or IntegrationCross-chain messaging protocol used for vsdCRV OFT implementation on Arbitrum. Used for cross-chain token transfers in votemarket oracle infrastructure.
• LaPosteinfrastructureTechnology or IntegrationCross-chain messaging bridge used by Votemarket oracle to relay L1 block data to Arbitrum and Base. Was exploited in March 2026 incident via vulnerability in L1BlockOracleUpdater.

Scale indicators10 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Curve Finance: Largest stable-swap and vote-escrow DEX, of which Stake DAO's sdCRV locker is the dominant liquid wrapper. Curve is the foundational partner for Stake DAO's largest product line and shapes the protocol's economics, making Curve both the primary partner and the dominant incumbent Stake DAO orbits.
• Balancer: Major DeFi liquidity protocol whose BAL governance token Stake DAO wraps via sdBAL and on whose gauges Stake DAO runs Votemarket. Balancer is a Core integration partner but also an incumbent AMM competing for the same liquidity-incentive budgets that Stake DAO helps allocate.

Direct peers

• Aura Finance: Liquid-staking and meta-governance layer for Balancer (veBAL) and broader DeFi governance tokens. Like Stake DAO, Aura issues liquid wrappers that preserve voting power and channels bribes back to LPs, competing head-to-head for Balancer-ecosystem locker users.
• Frax Finance: Frax operates liquid-staking products (sfrxETH) and is itself a governance-token partner of Stake DAO (sdFXS). Frax competes in liquid-staking infrastructure and shares meta-governance ambitions, making it both a partner and an indirect competitor.
• Yearn Finance: DeFi yield aggregator offering auto-compounded vaults across Ethereum, with a YFI governance token for which Stake DAO operates a liquid locker. Yearn's vault strategy overlaps with Stake DAO's curated-vaults product and they share the same DeFi-native user base.
• Pendle Finance: Yield-tokenization protocol whose PENDLE governance token is offered as a Stake DAO liquid locker and on whose gauges Stake DAO operates Votemarket. Pendle competes in DeFi yield optimization and is both a partner and a peer in the meta-governance space.
• Convex Finance: The dominant liquid-staking protocol for CRV governance tokens, offering cvxCRV as a liquid wrapper of vote-locked CRV. Convex is the most direct competitor to Stake DAO's sdCRV locker and competes for the same meta-governance opportunity across Curve and adjacent DeFi protocols.

Emerging players

• Arrakis Finance: Liquidity-management and concentrated-liquidity vault protocol building meta-governance and vote-escrow optimization primitives on Uniswap and other protocols. Arrakis competes for the same meta-governance and LP-incentive use cases that Stake DAO's Votemarket and lockers address.
• Hidden Hand (Bribe Protocol): On-chain bribe marketplace for Curve and Convex vote-escrow holders, historically a direct competitor to Stake DAO's Votemarket. Hidden Hand operates the same gauge-vote bribe category for many of the same protocols Stake DAO supports.
• EigenLayer: Restaking protocol that pioneered liquid-restaking primitives (LRTs) similar in spirit to Stake DAO's liquid lockers, but applied to ETH validator security rather than governance tokens. EigenLayer is an adjacent and rapidly growing peer in the broader liquid-staking category.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/StakeDAOHQ
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/stake-dao

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about Stake DAO