Lido

The Q4 report reveals that 6 additional Node Operators completed their onboarding. Most Node Operators are now below the soft cap of 1%. The usage of the Geth client fell from 76% to 67% in Q4. More Node Operators are committing to reducing reliance on the supermajority client. All new onboarders from Wave 5 have completed their infra setup. A new section on network credible neutrality and censorship has been added to the report.

The Lido testnet on Goerli will no longer be supported after February 29th, 2024. Withdraw (w)stETH before this date. Testnet activities will move to Holesky where a new Lido testnet is operational.

@taurus_hq partners with Lido protocol to offer Ethereum staking services to Swiss banks and corporate clients, combining liquid staking benefits with banking-grade custody. Taurus' clients can stake ETH, access rewards, and use stETH for DeFi activities. Taurus is a preferred platform for large financial institutions in Europe, with over half of Swiss banks using its infrastructure.

Lido's TVL increased by 10.80% to $24.20b, with +145,664 ETH in net staking deposits and stETH APR slightly rising to 3.49%. The amount of stETH bridged to L2 decreased by 0.36% to 144,648 wstETH. In comparison to the previous week, Lido experienced significant growth in TVL and ETH deposits, maintaining its lead in net new staking deposits among DeFi protocols.

The fourth round of Lido DVT Testnets with ObolNetwork and SSV Network is set to begin in March, following the successful completion of the Lido x Obol Simple DVT testnet where ObolNetwork surpassed all required benchmarks. The upcoming trials aim to further decentralize the Lido protocol and Ethereum, with over 100 net-new Node Operators expected to run validators via the Lido protocol within Q1 2024. Interested solo or community stakers can fill out a form to participate in the upcoming trials scheduled to start in March.

As of February 7, 2024, 25% of the ETH supply has been staked.

Lido Grants has announced another round of grants for initiatives that advance the Ethereum staking space. Check out @LidoGrants for more information.

Lido Finance announces that in less than 6 weeks, hundreds of new Node Operators will have the chance to run validators through the Lido protocol. Those interested can fill out a form to participate.

On February 4th, unstaking stSOL using the Lido UI will no longer be available. Users are advised to unstake any remaining stSOL before then. Staking will only be available via the CLI after that date.

The Lido Community Staking Module includes a bonding mechanism to facilitate permissionless onboarding of node operators. The bonding mechanism allows for restitution for stakers in case of malicious actions and increases economic alignment between node operators and stakers. ETH in the form of stETH is used for bonding to prevent exposure to volatile tokens. Bonds can be used as coverage for events where node operators negatively impact staking rewards. Non-linear bonding allows node operators to operate multiple validators with decreasing bond requirements. The design of reward and penalty measurement and distribution in the community staking module will be discussed in the next part of the series.