What is Lido and how does it work?

Lido is a liquid staking protocol, mainly known for Ethereum. When you stake ETH through Lido Finance, you receive stETH, a token that represents your staked ETH plus rewards. You can hold, transfer or use stETH in other apps while the underlying ETH keeps earning.

What is Lido crypto and how does it work?

Running your own Ethereum validator takes 32 ETH and technical work, as explained in what is Ethereum staking. Lido removes both barriers. Users deposit ETH into its smart contracts, and the protocol routes that ETH to validators run by node operators.

Lido's docs say rewards start within 24 hours of a deposit. The protocol charges a 10% fee on staking rewards, split between node operators and the DAO treasury. Users receive the rest.

Lido sorts its node operators into modules. As of October 2026 these are:

• Curated module: professional operators chosen by the DAO.
• Simple DVT module: smaller operators who run validators together in clusters using distributed validator technology.
• Community Staking Module: a permissionless option where anyone can run validators by posting a stETH bond.

A component called the Staking Router decides which module receives new deposits.

What is Lido staked ETH (stETH)?

stETH is minted one to one when you stake. Its balance in your wallet is recalculated each day after Lido's oracles report validator results, which is called rebasing. Many DeFi apps and bridges cannot handle a changing balance, so Lido also offers wstETH, a wrapped version whose balance stays fixed while its value in stETH rises. Our guide to liquid staking compares these tokens with others.

To get ETH back, you can sell stETH on the market or join Lido's withdrawal queue. A request locks your stETH and gives you an NFT that marks your place in line. The docs say a request cannot be canceled once made.

What is the Lido DAO and LDO?

The Lido DAO manages the protocol, including choosing node operators and setting fees. It votes using LDO, a governance token on Ethereum.

In June 2025, the DAO voted to enable dual governance. The Block reported that stETH holders can now lock stETH in an escrow contract to object to a proposal. At 1% of staked ETH, a proposal is delayed. At 10%, it is frozen until the objectors withdraw or the DAO drops the change. See what is a DAO for background.

Is Lido safe?

Lido lists several risks in its own docs. Its smart contracts are audited and covered by a bug bounty, but bugs are still possible. Validators can be penalized, and Lido spreads stake across many operators to limit the damage. stETH can also trade below the value of the ETH behind it, especially when withdrawals are slow. Our guide on whether staking is safe covers these risks in general.