Key Highlights
- Lido DAO proposes a $60 million 2026 budget to expand beyond Ethereum staking and grow its multi-product ecosystem.
- The GOOSE-3 proposal outlines a shift from “liquid staking only” to a suite of products including stVaults and Lido Earn.
- Core operations stay profitable with $8.1M surplus; new products like Lido Earn and stVaults may add $4.7M.
Lido DAO, the decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) behind the globe’s leading liquid staking solution, is gearing up to venture beyond staking on the Ethereum network in the year 2026.
The DAO has proposed a “$60 million budget through a plan designated as ‘2026 Ecosystem Grant Request (EGG): Executing GOOSE-3’ that must be approved by the Lido token holders.”
This initiative aims to shift Lido from a one-product staking platform to a multi-product ecosystem. These products would include earning products, vaults for various categories of people, and services for institutional participants, as well as on-chain treasuries.
The overarching goal is “creating new revenue streams and ensuring long-term protocol resistance.”
Financial outlook
Even with fairly conservative estimates, for example, a price of $2,712 and a staking APR of 2.93%, it is estimated that the DAO’s treasury will decrease, from $118.7 million in 2025 to $112.6 million in 2026, largely due to funding of growth endeavors.
Despite this modest decline, Lido’s core operations are projected to remain profitable, generating $8.1 million in surplus. New initiatives such as Lido Earn and stVaults could contribute an additional $4.7 million, helping diversify DAO revenue.
Operating expenses are projected to decrease by 17% from $32.4 million to $26.9 million as the focus becomes more specific to core areas such as engineering, audits, validator operations, and infrastructure. The growth budget, which contains an optional pool for unscheduled expenses, will rise to facilitate product development and scaling.
Here’s how investors are responding
Lido’s current performance in the marketplace has raised doubts among investors. It is paradoxical that Lido, which owns a 25% stakes share in Ethereum staking and controls a total of $26 billion worth of value locked, finds itself with a current marketplace value of less than $500 million.
Critics argue that the LDO token lacks any direct claim to revenue and that its governance concentration renders it inefficient for smaller investors, suggesting its “fair market value” could be negligible.
On the opposing side, supporters have argued Lido is currently producing positive cash flow, with buybacks scheduled via the NEST module for the early part of 2026. The recent unveiling of Lido v3 has enabled the provision of staking ETFs, such as WisdomTree and VanEck to offer access to the stETH asset, while the new “yield-optimizing” vaults have yielded rewards up to 6% APR. The supply has been fully circulated since the start of 2024, with no concern for inflation.
According to analysts, the Total Value Locked (TVL)/market cap ratio of approximately 100:1 is starkly high compared to Aave’s TVL/market cap ratio of 3:1 and Yearn Finance’s TVL/market cap ratio of 5:1, raising many questions about how low the Lido Protocol Token is currently valued.
How Lido plans to organize and grow
In contrast with the 2025 budget, where various committees presented their proposals independently, the budget presented for consideration in 2026 combines all budget requests within one framework.
Core operations now focus on basic operational requirements, but with an emphasis on those that are crucial to the protocols. Growth funds are dedicated to product development, institutional integrations, and expansion initiatives.
EGG 2026 brings product-oriented categories like stVaults, Lido Earn, and real-world applications, as well as a performance-related discretionary fund. This helps fulfill the GOOSE-3 requirement for diversification and the creation of new revenue sources beyond staking offered by Lido.
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