Lido Finance, one of the key developers of the DeFi protocol, has submitted a proposal to the community to sell 10,000 ETH (~$17.7 million) from the project’s treasury if the market downturn continues.

“Crypto markets, however volatile, seem to be rocking towards a late bearish phase,” the post reads.

An expert under the pseudonym Kadmil recommended that the DAO management allocate about half of its ETH to stablecoins to cover the operating costs of the Lido Finance team.

“We propose to sell 10,000 ETH treasury funds for DAI. This should cover costs of about two years for a team of 50 and operating costs to maintain the protocol,” he wrote.

The expert noted that the DAO treasury contains “significant funds”. Assets include ~166 million Lido DAO (LDO) tokens, 20,940 ETH, and 3,836 stETH for a total of ~$230M. However, he expressed concern that if the ETH price drops drastically, funding opportunities for the DAO will be significantly reduced.

According to the developer, Lido’s operating expenses are expressed in stablecoins such as USDC.

LDO is used to reward liquidity providers and referral bonuses. Kadmil says it is undesirable to sell tokens used for administration due to “unnecessary price pressure”. She noted that 3836 STETH included in staking bring income to the treasury and it is not appropriate to convert them.

At the time of writing, the value of assets locked in Lido is $ 7.9 billion. According to this indicator, the protocol ranks fourth in the rating (DeFi Llama).

Recall that Bitcoin exchanges Bitso and Gemini announced a reduction in staff against the background of current market conditions. Coinbase has suspended its hiring as part of its cost optimization measures.

2TM Group, the parent company of Brazilian platform Mercado Bitcoin, also announced the layoffs of some of its employees.