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Lido, the leading liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, is rolling out its major stVaults staking primitive on mainnet, following about a year of robust testing with prominent institutional validators like Chorus One and P2P.org, data firms like Nansen, and even Layer 2s like Linea.
“The release marks a structural shift in how Ethereum staking products are built and deployed. Until now, teams launching staking products have typically had to bootstrap infrastructure, integrations, and liquidity from scratch,” Lido exclusively told The Block.
stVaults, introduced in February 2025 as part of the Lido V3 upgrade, are non-custodial smart contracts that enable institutions, protocols, rollups, and other users to create customizable, “purpose-built” staking setups.
In short, the technology turns Lido from a uniform staking product into a shared, modular infrastructure platform. Vaults that users create stake ETH on Ethereum’s proof-of-stake network through selected node operators while providing access to Lido’s stETH liquid staking token.
“stVaults show how Ethereum staking is evolving,” Lido Labs Foundation Chief of Staking Isidoros Passadis said. “Different users now need different setups. That includes L2s integrating staking at the infrastructure level and institutions requiring dedicated configurations. With stVaults, the Lido protocol can support these needs within a single framework while maintaining the liquidity and transparency that stETH is known for.”
Day 1 partners
With the mainnet launch, Lido is now rolling out its stVaults technology to the wider public, including several day 1 partners, including node operators like P2P.org, Chorus One, Pier Two, and Sentora (with Kiln), as well as institutional stakers Solstice, Twinstake, Northstake, and Everstake, among other users, many of which joined Lido’s “early adopter program.”
Over the past year, several firms have tapped the stack to launch innovative products. Consensys-backed L2 Linea, for instance, introduced a “Native Yield feature” that automatically stakes bridged ETH on Linea in a dedicated, protocol-controlled stVault generating passive yield.
Nansen, too, launched its first Ethereum staking product, combining stVaults staking with access to stETH-based DeFi strategies. “What excites us is everything we can offer around it – transparent, attributable staking, deep onchain analytics, and AI-native integration with trading and automation so users get a more holistic onchain experience,” Nansen CEO Alexander Svanevik said.
“The big thing about them is that the configuration can be customized for various needs/cases,” a Lido spokesperson told The Block. This includes adjusting the staking fee structures (Lido charges a 10% fee) or risk/reward profiles.
Institutional needs
Perhaps most importantly, personalized stVault setups can be configured for different compliance needs, like validator customization, deposit and withdrawal checks, and other operational controls. P2P.org exec Artemiy Parshakov noted the firm uses stVaults to run some of its “dedicated, institution-ready validator configurations.”
“As institutional participation in Ethereum staking grows, segregation, traceability, and operational clarity are no longer optional. stVaults give us the ability to deliver dedicated, institution-grade staking environments onchain, while remaining fully connected to Lido’s shared liquidity and transparency,” Solstice managing director Marcus Maute said, noting the firm is testing a proof-of-concept with AMINA Bank.
stVaults are opt-in and isolated, meaning they have limited security risks for other users.
Lido launched in 2020 with the goal of democratizing staking by enabling users without the full 32 ETH (~$90,000) needed to run a node to participate in a shared staking environment. The protocol issues stETH, a liquid staking token that mirrors, but is not pegged to ETH, that accrues Ethereum staking rewards and can be used across the DeFi landscape.
In December, WisdomTree launched the first Ethereum-based exchange-traded product in Europe that earns staking rewards by holding stETH. It is unclear if that fund also uses a stVault.
stETH has a market cap of around $27 billion, representing about a quarter of all liquid staking tokens in circulation, according to The Block’s data.
