Top Ethereum liquid staking protocol Lido's governance token has emerged as a rare bright spot in a battered DeFi sector, gaining 30% over the past 30 days while every other major token slid into the red.

LDO is trading at $0.42, up 12% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.

The contrast with its DeFi peers is stark. Over the same 30-day window, AAVE fell 7%, Uniswap (UNI) dropped 15%, Curve’s CRV slipped 9%, and Etherfi's ETHFI shed 16%. MORPHO was the closest to breakeven among top DeFi tokens, losing just 0.5%.

The catalyst behind LDO's outperformance is a $20 million buyback program. The Lido DAO voted to spend up to 10,000 stETH ($23 million) to repurchase LDO tokens from the open market, routing purchases through centralized exchanges and market makers in 1,000 stETH batches due to thin on-chain liquidity. Each batch requires a separate Easy Track governance motion to execute. At current prices, the full program could retire roughly 8% of LDO's circulating supply, according to the proposal.

The buyback coincides with a broader strategic pivot. In December, the DAO approved a $60 million budget to push Lido beyond its core liquid staking business. That plan began taking shape in March when the protocol launched EarnUSD, its first stablecoin vault, which allocates USDC and USDT deposits across lending markets, real-world asset integrations and structured positions.

But despite the rally, LDO remains down more than 94% from its November 2021 peak of $7.30, and Lido's share of staked ETH has slipped to a year-to-date low of roughly 23%, according to a Dune dashboard.

The buyback proposal itself acknowledged the token's distressed valuation, calling the gap between LDO's price and Lido's revenue "one of the most significant dislocations" in the project's history.