Lido's $16B ETH Upgrade Brings New Collateral Model

Lido's liquid staking protocol has rolled out its biggest upgrade since V2, known as Curated Module v2. This update will migrate over 8 million ETH (~$16 billion) to new 0x02 validators.

The upgrade aims to improve the protocol by increasing the per-node cap from 32 to 2,048 ETH, allowing Lido node operators to service more staked tokens with fewer network participants. The share of ETH placed under the new standard will increase from ~32% to ~52%, and the total number of validators on Ethereum will drop by about one-third.

The Curated Module v2 adds collateral for operators, requiring them to post their own ETH as a bond that can be seized in case of slashing or downtime. This change aims to give stakers measurable protection while supplementing the reputation model.