Lido Consolidates $16.5 Billion in Ethereum Validators
Lido, a leading Ethereum staking protocol, has launched a massive consolidation effort that could reduce the number of active validators on the network by one third.
The migration involves transferring over 8 million ETH, valued at approximately $16.5 billion, into a smaller number of validators. This will reduce the total number of technical messages sent across the network by around 29%, according to Lido estimates.
The consolidation is made possible by EIP-7251, which allows validators to manage up to 2,048 ETH, compared to the previous limit of 32 ETH. Lido plans to transfer its funds into the Curated Module v2 (CMv2), where existing operators will have to stake their own ETH as collateral.
The new system adds an economic responsibility for operators, who may face penalties if they fail to manage their validators effectively. Despite this change, all 34 operators in Lido's main module plan to join CMv2 and benefit from the consolidation.