Key facts
- Lido is consolidating over 8 million staked ether, valued at approximately $16.5 billion.
- The upgrade aims to reduce Ethereum's total validator count by an estimated one-third.
- Attestation messages on the Ethereum network are expected to decrease by roughly 29% per epoch.
- Lido's node operators are moving to Curated Module v2 and will be required to post locked ETH bonds.
- All 34 existing curated operators are expected to adopt the new module.
Lido, the largest staking pool on Ethereum, has commenced its most significant upgrade since 2023, consolidating over 8 million staked ether, valued at approximately $16.5 billion, onto Ethereum's post-Pectra validator design. This strategic move is anticipated to reduce the total number of validators on the Ethereum network by an estimated one-third, thereby easing the load on its consensus layer.
The consolidation is projected to decrease attestation messages across the network by about 29% per epoch, a measure that synchronizes blockchain activity. While this upgrade is not expected to directly impact gas fees or transaction speeds for everyday users, it aims to enhance overall network performance in the background.
The transition involves Lido's professional node operators moving to Curated Module v2 (CMv2). For the first time in Lido's five-year history, these operators will be required to secure their performance with locked ETH bonds, introducing economic accountability alongside the existing reputation-based system. Lido confirmed that all 34 of its current curated operators are expected to adopt CMv2, with no plans to exit due to the new bond requirement.
Isidoros Passadis, chief of staking at Lido Labs Foundation, stated that this change makes the validator set underpinning Lido Core leaner and better secured. Will Shannon, head of node operator mechanisms at Lido Labs Foundation, added that the bonds complement the reputation model with real economic accountability. The migration will utilize a distinct consensus-layer consolidation queue, and Lido estimates an approximate 0.28% reduction in annual staking rewards across the protocol.