Lido Unveils V3 Upgrade, Enhancing Ethereum Staking for Institutions

Lido, one of Ethereum’s (ETH) largest staking protocols, has announced the upcoming launch of Lido V3, an upgrade aimed at making ETH staking more modular, flexible, and accessible to institutional investors.

As of today, Lido’s total value locked (TVL) is approximately $25 billion, according to DeFiLlama. With its latest update, Lido introduces stVaults, a new staking framework aimed at providing institutions, node operators, and DeFi users greater flexibility and control over their ETH staking strategies.

"Lido V3 is a major leap forward for Ethereum staking," said Konstantin Lomashuk, Lido protocol founding contributor, in a press release. "With stVaults, the protocol expands into Ethereum Staking Infrastructure, offering a flexible foundation for the next phase of staking while upholding the security and decentralization the Lido protocol is known for."

Since its launch in 2020, Lido has been a major force in ETH staking. This latest upgrade comes at a time when ETH staking is evolving, driven by increasing institutional interest and the emergence of staking-enabled financial products like exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Introducing stVaults

stVaults function as modular smart contracts that create an open staking marketplace, expanding Ethereum’s decentralized validator network.

These personalized staking setups ensure that ETH remains bonded while staked, helping to balance security and liquidity.

This is reinforced by the Reserve Ratio (RR) mechanism, which requires a portion of staked ETH to be held as collateral when minting stETH, the press release explained. Unlike the broader Lido Core Protocol, stVaults also features an opt-in approach for “shared security.”

Lido’s native LDO token is currently trading at $1.61 with a market cap of $1.4 billion, up nearly 6% in the past 24 hours, according to CoinGecko.