Curated Module Fee Changes

Tl;Dr

This proposal seeks to adjust the fee structure for Node Operators in the current Curated Module (CM or CMv1) of the protocol in light of two key factors: (1) proposed changes that will be brought by Staking Router v3 and Curated Module v2 (see “Contributor Thoughts on the Future of Lido Core”), and (2) increasing competition in the Ethereum staking market.

In the current staking market conditions (with some Node Operators offering to run validators for fees as low as 1-3% of staking rewards), there is a clear need for the protocol to remain attractive to participants while continuing to support ecosystem growth and decentralization initiatives.

As such, it is proposed to adopt the following interim fee structure for the CM for three categories of operators:

• Standard Tier: baseline fee-share set to 3.50%
• Extra Effort Tier: baseline fee-share set to 4.00%
• Client-Team Tier: baseline fee-share set to 4.50%

The overall Lido protocol fee of 10% of staking rewards would remain unchanged.

Background

As noted in the Future of Lido Core proposal, significant resources of the Lido DAO have been allocated to continuing to decentralize and harden the protocol with new features such as permissionless staking via the Community Staking Module and novel mechanisms such as Dual Governance.

Given a staking environment with increasing competition, including participation by centralized exchange services & single Node Operators, changes to the Curated Module fee structure are expected to help support the ongoing ecosystem growth and continue the community efforts to keep staking simple, secure, and decentralized.

Importantly, these changes are intended as an interim measure until an upgraded version of the Curated Module (CMv2) is proposed for addition to the protocol in 2026 (pending a DAO vote), which is expected to add additional automation to the module, including modifiable fee curves, bonding, automated performance monitoring, etc. For more information regarding CMv2, see the Future of Lido Core proposal or presentation on the Lido Poolside Community Call.

Note. Any future timelines and design details for CMv2 remain subject to further research, audits, and approval by the Lido DAO.

Proposal Details

It is proposed that three Tiers of Node Operators are introduced into CMv1: Standard Tier (which the majority of Node Operators will fall under), Extra Effort Tier, and Client Team Tier.

These tiers would receive the following fee share of staking rewards:

1. Standard Tier: 3.50%
2. Extra Effort Tier: 4.00%
3. Client-Team Tier: 4.50%

As Node Operators’ fees are set at the module level due to a technical limitation in the current version of the Curated Module, the Curated Module fee to Node Operators would be set at 3.50%. In order for Extra Effort and Client Team Node Operators to receive their respective 0.50% and 1.00% of additional rewards, manual operations will be used to send these Node Operators the additional rewards via a manual “rebate”-like system.

For Standard Tier operators, the rewards as a Lido Node Operator remain meaningful: by way of illustration only, assuming an ETH/USD price of approximately $3,000 (based on market conditions in Q4 2025) and the median level of stake across curated operators at that time, a Standard Tier Node Operator would have generated in the region of $697,000 of annualized revenue from the Curated Module.

Note. This illustrative example is provided solely for context and does not represent a forecast, guarantee, or commitment regarding future rewards. Actual outcomes will depend on, among other things, ETH price, stake allocation, network rewards, and protocol parameters.

As a result of these changes, it is expected that the DAO’s share of rewards in the Curated Module is anticipated to increase, under current assumptions, to a level above the current 5%, to a level near 6%. This would be expected to increase the resources available to the DAO’s Treasury capacity to continue to support ecosystem growth initiatives and efforts to further decentralize the protocol. Yet, actual Treasury inflows will vary over time with market conditions and protocol usage.

It is also proposed that, in the event ETH/USD prices drastically fall in a significant and sustained manner, the DAO may re-evaluate these proposed terms to ensure Node Operator validator operations related to the Lido protocol remain a viable business. Any changes following such a re-evaluation would be subject to separate DAO discussion and votes.

Node Operator Tier Assignment

The Node Operator Mechanisms (NOM) workstream reviewed applications submitted by Curated Module Node Operators for the Extra Effort and Client-Team Tiers.

For the Extra Effort Tier, Node Operators were assessed based on a combination of factors, including their historical contributions to EL & CL clients, geographic and infrastructure diversity of the Lido protocol, contributions to Lido governance and ETH inflows, as well as their overall Ethereum ecosystem contributions and public goods work. For example, the proposed operators scored highly on a combined set of factors, including:

• Historical ETH contributions of stake to the Lido protocol
• Participation in Lido DAO governance (holding & voting with material amounts of LDO & participation in community discussions)
• Contributions to the Lido protocol’s validator infrastructure decentralization (e.g., operating validators from Latin America & Africa, and utilizing minority EL & CL clients)
• Participation in Node Operator testing programs (e.g., DVT testnets, PERCH APM testing, etc.)

Client-Team Tier operators are directly involved in mainnet Ethereum client development (Execution Layer, Beacon Chain Consensus Layer, or Validator Client) or maintenance, serving as a resource to other Lido Node Operators, and play a key role in strengthening network-level decentralization and client diversity.

Following the assessment process, the Node Operator Mechanisms workstream proposes that the DAO consider approving the following tiers:

Extra Effort Tier: (5)

id	NO name
2	P2P.org
3	Chorus One
18	Stakely
30	Launchnodes
31	SenseiNode

Client Team Tier: (7)

id	NO name
21	Consensys (Besu / Teku)
25	Twinstake (Nethermind)
26	ChainSafe (Lodestar)
27	Prysm Team at Offchain Labs (Prysm)
28	Sigma Prime (Lighthouse)
29	Attestant (BVI) Limited (Vouch)
33	Develp GmbH (Nimbus)

Standard Tier: (24)

The other 24 active Node Operators participating in the Curated Module would be assigned to the Standard Tier under this proposal (subject to DAO approval).

Voting Options

A vote "For" indicates agreement with this proposal. If "For" wins, the following steps will be taken:

• the Curated Module Node Operator fee adjustment to 3.5% will be included in one of the upcoming on-chain votes, which will reflect the fee adjustment approved in this Snapshot;
• manual operations will be put in place to provide the additional 0.5% and 1% of respective rewards for the Extra Effort and Client Team Tier Node Operators named in this proposal.

A vote "Against" indicates disagreement with this proposal. As there is a range of potential alternative options, a vote "Against" will be followed by a discussion to identify which options should be considered and brought to a subsequent vote.