Lido DAO expands staking ecosystem, targets 2026 growth

Lido DAO is preparing to enter its next growth phase, focusing on expanding the staking ecosystem, enhancing protocol operations, and developing new revenue streams for the DAO.

Strategic Vision 2026 and the Next Three Years

With the upcoming launch of Lido V3, Lido DAO has announced a concrete plan to drive staking growth through stVaults and institution-focused products, while establishing market balancing mechanisms to make the protocol more sustainable. Lido’s initial mission—to build a simple, secure, and decentralized Ethereum liquid staking protocol—has essentially been accomplished. Now, Lido DAO moves into its next chapter with the following long-term strategic objectives:

Key Growth Strategies:

2026 Objectives

1. Expand the staking ecosystem

Lido aims to boost the adoption of stETH and stVaults through proactive distribution, new integrations, and partnerships, including the launch of a staked ETH ETF in the US. The stVaults product line will be expanded with a modular “constructor” mechanism to rapidly launch custom DeFi products.

2. Ensure protocol sustainability: Lido Core Upgrade

Key upgrades will include Curated Module v2 and Staking Router v3, introducing the ValMart mechanism—an automated validator marketplace that allocates stake based on performance, cost, and decentralization.

3. Develop new revenue streams: Lido Earn

Expand Lido Earn to serve a diverse range of user segments with different yield strategies and risk levels, turning it into a powerful revenue source for the DAO.

4. Explore vertical expansion and real-world enterprise applications

Lido aims to connect off-chain economic activity with onchain liquidity through a dual-track model: rapidly launching multiple small projects for quick results, while simultaneously pursuing a large-scale opportunity with the potential for billion-dollar revenue.

In parallel with these objectives, GOOSE-2 on “LDO alignment” will be pushed in the first half of 2026 with the deployment of the NEST system (not yet approved by the DAO), to directly link the success of the LDO token with Lido’s success through DAO revenue-funded LDO buybacks.

Three-Year Vision: Lido – The DeFi Bridge for Real-World Enterprises

Over the next three years, Lido DAO positions itself at the center of DeFi’s shift toward real-world enterprise applications. Lido will connect onchain liquidity with off-chain economic activities, develop products for enterprises managing treasury, finance, and onchain investments, and provide scalable, secure, and composable DeFi infrastructure.

Execution Strategy

Guiding principles for the execution team include:

• Focus on measurable outcomes: Every initiative has clear success metrics for capital, time, and traction.
• Iterate and validate: New products will be tested through real-world adoption and user feedback.
• Maintain flexibility: Small projects run in parallel, each with time and resource limits, while the “Big Bet” can be scaled when the conditions are right.
• Ensure safety: All experiments adhere to risk limits to protect Lido’s security, liquidity, and reputation.

Product Development Roadmap

StVaults – Modular staking infrastructure

• Enables stakers, integrators, and asset managers to create custom yield strategies based on stETH.
• Supports ETP/ETF products based on stETH, allowing institutional investors to access staking yields through regulated and compliant products.

Lido Earn – Expanding revenue streams

• Targets multiple segments: advanced DeFi users, restakers, stablecoin savers, passive earners, treasury managers.
• Annual revenue target: $8 million by end of 2026.

Exploring real-world enterprise applications

• Small bets: Rapidly launch multiple small ideas, test markets, drive internal momentum, and minimize risk.
• Big bet: Focus on a major opportunity with billion-dollar revenue potential, pursued when a clear competitive edge is identified.

Conclusion

Lido has accomplished its initial mission: building the largest and most decentralized liquid staking protocol on Ethereum, with zero user-impacting security incidents and 683 active node operators.

Entering a new chapter, Lido aims not only to secure Ethereum but also to expand as the DeFi bridge for real-world enterprises, diversifying product lines and revenue streams. Lido targets sustainable growth, connecting onchain and off-chain activities, and maintaining its leadership in the global decentralized finance space.

Thach Sanh