Lido Proposes 32 ETH Entry Bond for New Staking Route

Lido, a leading Ethereum staking service, has proposed a new route for larger validators that would require a significantly higher entry bond. The proposed route would need a 32 ETH entry bond, compared to the existing 2.4 ETH default route. This is in line with Ethereum's EIP-7251, which permits validators with 0x02 withdrawal credentials to compound with a maximum effective balance of 2,048 ETH.

The new route, Community Staking Module 0x02, would support compounding validators with up to 2,048 ETH of effective stake, compared to 32 ETH for existing-route validators. The proposed bond curve follows the number of keys, so an existing 0x02 key would need no additional collateral as its stake grows.

Lido's existing 0x01 default profile has a 2.4 ETH entry bond for the first key and 1.3 ETH thereafter. The proposed module has a 32 ETH entry bond for the first key and 30 ETH for each additional key.

The distinction between collateral and stake matters. The bond is the operator's security deposit, held as stETH to cover losses and charges. The protocol supplies the validator's stake separately. Posting a 32 ETH bond does not mean buying the validator's delegated ETH or receiving a guaranteed allocation.

Operators would receive a 2% share of staking rewards, with 8% allocated to the treasury. The deployment setting giving operators 100% of the module fee means they receive that entire 2% slice.

The proposed module remains on Hoodi testnet, with mainnet expected in Q4 2026. The deployment post describes preparations for mainnet and puts the module's Staking Router parameters to a later vote.