Lido Upgrades Staking Module with Curated Validator Bonds

Lido, the largest Ethereum staking protocol by total value locked, has launched Curated Module v2 (CMv2), a significant upgrade to its main staking module. This new version requires professional node operators to post bonds, denominated in ETH, stETH, or wstETH, which are held as stETH. The bond covers all of an operator's validators and can be slashed under a new penalty framework.

The CMv2 upgrade is expected to consolidate more than 8 million staked ETH onto high-balance validator design, reducing the total validator count by about a third. This migration will also trim attestation messages across the network by approximately 29% per epoch, easing load on the consensus layer.

Lido expects the transition to cut Ethereum's validator count from around 880,000 to roughly 628,000. The new Curated Module Committee and Easy Track motions will enforce penalties for validator slashing events, diverted execution layer rewards, or extended downtime.