The Lido Finance liquid staking service is operating as usual, despite the stETH token falling in price against Ethereum and the asset being sold by major holders. This was reported by the developers of the project.

“These large fluctuations are in most cases related to the specific liquidity needs of certain market participants – they are not tied to the fundamentals of stETH or the value of the underlying assets,” the report says.

The service team emphasized that all stETH issuances on the Beacon Chain PoS network are “confirmed at a 1:1 ratio with deposits in ETH”.

According to the developers, after the so-called “merge” (The Merge) is completed, “stETH can be exchanged for deposited ETH and accrued stake rewards, regardless of the stETH rate.”

According to Curve, the discount on stETH tokens is over 5% at the time of writing.

Earlier, PeckShield highlighted the large exchanges created by wallets allegedly linked to Three Arrows Capital (3AC). Some experts emphasized that the hedge fund’s operations indicate its intent to pay off the debts and loans it has.

Amid speculation about the liquidation of major positions in the structure and its solvency, co-founder Su Zhu said that 3AC is “fully committed to solving this problem.”

Against this background, the community is watching the actions of Celsius crypto lending platform, which has previously suspended withdrawals, swaps and transfers between accounts. According to the Ape Board, at the time of writing, it has 409,260 stETH worth $436.5 million.

Huobi analysts Johnny Loewy and Andy Hu noted that Celsius previously suffered a loss of approximately $71 million due to the placement of stETH on the StakeHound staking platform after the private key incident. In June 2021, the latter blamed Fireblocks for the loss of access.

“It was in the news a week ago, and Celsius users started retaking their positions after learning that the investment was in jeopardy. Withdrawal rates were high, about 50,000 ETH per week forcing Celsius to sell other assets such as stETH (in Lido staking) for ETH on secondary markets like Curve to get more liquidity,” he said.

They claim that only 27% of Celsius ETH is liquid. As such, they said the platform “has no choice but to sell STETH in Lido staking.”

“In the short-term, stETH will face huge selling pressure. Turbulence is expected in the near future,” Analysts said.

For the first time, against the background of the collapse of the algorithmic stablecoin TerraUSD (UST) and the LUNA token, a discount on stETH occurred in May. At the same time, the media reported that Celsius managed to save 225,000 ETH from the Anchor protocol.

Recall that in May Goldman Sachs experts said that the collapse of the Terra ecosystem caused the “contagion” of the stETH token, increasing systemic risks.