Lido Finance
Last changed 2026-10-10 · Score recalculated — Rescored under Scoring v2, the published formula (avoid.net/scoring): 70 → 85. Problems weighed by who is responsible: concerns that are not fraud −27.2, problems around the subject, caused by others −1.7; legitimacy credit well known and widely used +25, long-running +10, audits +4; fact-check adjustments (−8) now shown as page reliability, not in the score. Version history →
Why this score
| Every page starts at | 65 |
| Concerns that are not fraud | -27.2 |
| Problems around it, caused by others | -1.7 |
| Well known and widely used | +25 |
| Long-running | +10 |
| Audited | +4 |
| Sum | 75 |
Score: 85/100 (kept between 0 and 100)
How scoring works →Summary
Lido Finance is the largest Ethereum liquid-staking protocol, launched in December 2020, enabling users to stake ETH and receive the liquid derivative token stETH without meeting the standard 32 ETH validator minimum. Governed by the Lido DAO via the LDO token, the protocol held approximately 24% of all staked ETH and roughly $19 billion in TVL as of early 2026. Lido carries no fraud or exit-scam history, but poses well-documented systemic centralization risk to Ethereum consensus, governance-concentration concerns among LDO token holders, and faces an active US federal securities lawsuit alleging that LDO is an unregistered security.
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- + 18 more
Timeline(16 events)
18 December 2020
Lido Finance launches on Ethereum mainnet, enabling liquid ETH staking with stETH. Initial team raises $2 million in seed funding.
Bitstamp — What is Lido (LDO)?May 2021
Lido raises $73 million in a funding round led by Paradigm, with participation from Coinbase Ventures, Dragonfly Capital, Delphi Digital, and Three Arrows Capital.
CoinDesk — a16z Investing $70M into Lido Finance3 March 2022
Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) leads a $70 million funding round into Lido Finance.
CoinDesk — a16z Investing $70M into Lido Finance9 May 2022
Terra/Luna ecosystem collapses. Lido's Curve stETH/ETH pool TVL begins contracting sharply from $4.08 billion as bridged bETH holders mass-exit back to Ethereum.
Nansen Report / CryptoSlate12 May 2022
Three Arrows Capital removes ~$400 million of liquidity from Curve's stETH/ETH pool in one transaction; Celsius withdraws ~$380 million in three transactions the same day, severely impairing the pool's ability to absorb stETH sellers.
Nansen Report — Fortune13 June 2022
stETH trades at approximately 0.93 ETH — its lowest recorded ratio — during the Celsius withdrawal halt and 3AC insolvency crisis. Celsius halts all customer withdrawals the same week.
Fortune / Yahoo Finance24 June 2022
Lido governance publishes the 'Should Lido consider self-limiting?' proposal. Voting closes July 1: fewer than 0.5% of LDO votes support self-limitation; more than 99% vote against.
Yahoo Finance — Lido Voters Reject Limiting GrowthMay 2023
Lido V2 launches on Ethereum mainnet, introducing staking withdrawals (enabled by the Shapella upgrade) and the Staking Router modular architecture.
Coin Bureau — Lido Finance Review 202611 October 2023
Lido discloses 20 slashing events involving node operator Launchnodes, caused by an infrastructure failover misconfiguration. Impact estimated at ~20 ETH; Launchnodes reimburses 25.663 ETH.
Post Mortem: Lido on Ethereum Launchnodes Slashing Incident — Lido Blog17 December 2023
Andrew Samuels files Samuels v. Lido DAO in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, alleging LDO is an unregistered security under the Securities Act of 1933.
Davis Wright Tremaine — Samuels v. Lido DAO Analysis25 October 2024
Lido's Community Staking Module (CSM) launches on Ethereum mainnet, enabling permissionless validator onboarding with an ETH bond as low as 1.3 ETH.
CSM Goes Fully Permissionless — Lido Blog18 November 2024
Judge Vince Chhabria of the Northern District of California rules that Lido DAO constitutes a general partnership under California law, denying dismissal motions and holding that LDO token holders and VC investors may face personal liability for alleged securities violations.
SAMUELS v. DAO (2024) — FindLaw10 February 2025
Lido announces V3 upgrade featuring stVaults — customizable, modular staking vault contracts targeting institutional stakers and asset managers.
Lido Goes Modular With Vault-Based V3 Upgrade — CoinDesk29 June 2025
Lido DAO formally adopts the Dual Governance framework, granting stETH holders the ability to delay or block governance proposals by depositing stETH into an escrow contract. The system goes live on-chain July 4, 2025.
Lido DAO Enables Dual Governance — Unchained2026
Lido's staking market share stands at approximately 24.45% of all staked ETH, down from a peak of over 32% in late 2023, with roughly 9.17 million ETH staked and approximately $19 billion TVL.
RootData — Ethereum staking rate 28.91%, Lido market share 24.45%12 March 2026
A minor slashing event affects six validators in the permissionless CSM module. Total penalties estimated under 1 ETH (~$100), covered entirely by the operator's bond with no impact on stETH holders.
Lido Reports Minor Validator Slashing in Community Staking Module — The Crypto TimesDecision Log
- slot 455371050 · hash EPMGb5s5qriM5fp2FT3rBkFpQNNqsnowmkW11SVhXaBU
- slot 445504363 · hash FFEiDFb57RcP4XxDByvqaLRx9nSN9bbM3nGUcEBCdCv8
- slot 423943889 · hash 6iRoU4L1q8MbBv2YpX6mSAedPRneooZpsLVGKd1b8PcU
- slot 423943882 · hash DWF4ZMqr7A5tqRYcv2ySEcR2PoZ3hUtLbZJxPcWWCPau
- slot 423204532 · hash 4dqK84aKBJaX1UZYNjG72wSr1LrC2gyJM8vAkPv9fvPe
This investigation is cryptographically anchored to the Solana blockchain (5 decisions). 36 of 37 cited source URLs have an Internet Archive snapshot.
model: claude-code-investigator
generated: 5/30/2026, 5:45:43 PM
last updated: 10/10/2026, 6:50:48 PM
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