Lido started migrating over 8 million staked ETH to Ethereum's post-Pectra validator architecture through Curated Module v2. The upgrade will reduce Ethereum's validator count while introduci
Lido has started migrating more than 8 million staked ETH, worth about $16.5 billion, to Ethereum's post-Pectra validator architecture. According to Lido, the rollout began Monday through its Curated Module v2 upgrade to reduce validator numbers, introduce ETH bond requirements, and simplify network operations. The migration affects Lido's professional node operators and will continue over the coming months.
According to Lido, the upgrade marks its largest protocol change since Lido V2 launched in 2023. The transition follows the Lido DAO's approval of Curated Module v2 on July 23, 2026, after audits and testnet testing.
Ethereum's Pectra hard fork raised the maximum effective validator balance from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH through 0x02 validators. As a result, Lido can combine thousands of smaller validators into fewer larger ones while managing the same amount of staked ETH.
The protocol said more than 8 million ETH, representing about one-fifth of all staked Ether, will move to the new validator format. Meanwhile, the share of Lido stake running on 0x02 validators will increase from roughly 32% to about 52%.
According to Lido, the migration will lower Ethereum's validator count from about 880,000 to nearly 628,000. It also expects attestation messages across the network to decline by about 29% during each epoch.
The upgrade also changes how Lido's curated node operators participate. For the first time, all 34 curated operators must lock ETH bonds that can cover slashing penalties, execution-layer reward issues, and operational failures.
Lido Labs Foundation Chief of Staking Isidoros Passadis said the upgrade represents the biggest change to Lido Core staking since Lido V2. He added that operators will now secure delegated stake with their own capital while managing fewer validators.
Will Shannon, head of node operator mechanisms at Lido Labs Foundation, said the bonds add economic accountability alongside the existing reputation-based model. He also said Lido will use Ethereum's separate consensus-layer consolidation queue instead of the deposit activation queue.
Lido estimates the migration will temporarily reduce annual staking rewards by about 0.28% as validators exit and consolidate. However, validators will continue earning rewards until they complete the transition, limiting missed rewards to the migration period.
The rollout also includes Community Staking Module v3, which introduces Identified Distributed Validator Technology clusters for verified community operators. According to Lido, the new version lets bonded capital secure more staked ETH while reducing the bond needed for operators using distributed validator technology.
Earlier this year, Lido said the full migration could take up to six months to complete. During that period, the protocol estimated it could forgo about 738.5 ETH in staking rewards while reallocating validators.
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