Lido has begun migrating more than 8 million staked ETH, worth about $16.5 billion, to Ethereum's post-Pectra validator architecture through Curated Module v2.

The upgrade is designed to reduce Ethereum's validator count, introduce ETH bond requirements for Lido's curated node operators, and simplify network operations. Lido said the migration began on Monday and will continue over the coming months, affecting the protocol's professional node operators.

Curated Module v2 Reshapes Lido Staking

According to Lido, the upgrade is its largest protocol change since Lido V2 launched in 2023. The transition follows approval of Curated Module v2 by the Lido DAO on July 23, 2026, after audits and testnet testing.

Ethereum's Pectra hard fork increased the maximum effective validator balance from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH through 0x02 validators. That change allows Lido to combine thousands of smaller validators into fewer larger ones while managing the same amount of staked ETH, a shift that also makes validator operations more efficient as the network moves to use the new limit.

The protocol said more than 8 million ETH, representing about one-fifth of all staked Ether, will move to the new validator format. At the same time, the share of Lido stake running on 0x02 validators will rise from about 32% to roughly 52%.

Lido said the migration will reduce Ethereum's validator count from about 880,000 to nearly 628,000. It also expects attestation messages across the network to fall by about 29% during each epoch.

Node Operators Face New Bond Requirements

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.

Isidoros Passadis, Lido Labs Foundation Chief of Staking, said the upgrade is 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.

Migration Includes Reward Changes And CSM v3

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 allows bonded capital to secure more staked ETH while reducing the bond required 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.