[EGG] Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation Grant Funding Request (Apr-Dec 2025)

tldr

Seek grant approvals through 2025-12-31 to the Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation to advance stETH adoption, liquidity, and utility, as well as LOL’s grant request for H2 2025.

Basic Data

Field	Description
Proposal Name	Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation Grant Funding Request (Apr-Dec 2025)
Which of the following GOOSE goals is your proposal advancing?	GOOSE-2 goal #3 stETH is the most used token in the Ethereum ecosystem
Proposed scope of work	Integrations and DeFi use-cases, Institutional adoption, Liquidity optimization, marketing, education and communications
Objectives	1. 30%+ of stakers use Lido protocol to stake; 2. Institutions use Lido protocol to stake; 3. Build brand awareness of stETH and Lido protocol
Total Budget Request and Best Before Dates	Budget request includes $10.61M through 2025-12-31, Liquidity Observation Lab’s grant ($8.5M for H2 2025).

Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation Grant Funding Request

	2. Validator Set	3. stETH Adoption	4. Support	Grand Total
G&A	0.99m	0.81m	1.88m	3.68m
R&D			1.00m	1.00m
S&M	0.15m	5.78m		5.93m
Grand Total	1.14m	6.59m	2.88m	10.61m

Strategic Priorities

1. 30%+ of stakers use Lido protocol to stake

• Drive efforts for the adoption of stETH as a battle-tested solution for liquid staking through:
  • Targeted outreach to major DeFi protocols and key ecosystem players
  • Development of comprehensive integration guides and technical documentation
  • Maintaining and reinforcing stETH liquidity and utility
  • Creation of incentive programs for protocols integrating stETH
  • Establishment of a dedicated integration support team

Key Performance Indicators:

• stETH share in Ethereum staking
• stETH trading volume
• Stakers retention

2. Institutions use Lido protocol to stake

• Accelerate stETH adoption in institutional segment through:
  • Strategic integrations with major custodians and regulated venues
  • Creation of dedicated institutional onboarding processes
  • Regular institutional user education sessions and workshops
  • Compliance and regulatory knowledge base development

Key Performance Indicators:

• Share of stETH in institutional inflows
• stETH support by major custodies
• Lido brand perception by TradFi and Institutional players

3. Build brand awareness of stETH and Lido protocol

• Enhance stETH and Lido brand through:
  • Development of educational content targeting different user segments
  • Collaboration with thought leaders and industry defining organisations
  • Coordinated media and PR campaigns
  • Strategic presence at major industry events and conferences

Key Performance Indicators:

• Social media engagement and community growth
• Lido brand perception among crypto users and institutional stakeholders
• Media coverage quality and quantity

Additional info

LDO token holders have approved that Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation oversees and legally “wraps” Liquidity Observation Lab and Rewards Share Committee.

Liquidity Observation Lab

Liquidity Observation Lab continues its existing grant ($8.5m) till 2025-06-30 as originally approved.

This proposal suggests a renewal of the same grant ($8.5m) from 2025-07-01 through 2025-12-31.

Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation will explore protocol-owned liquidity (POL) solutions that could further mitigate the ongoing grant levels. If POL is enabled, an update to this grant request would provide transparency and wind down unused grant approval.

Rewards Share Committee

Rewards-Share Committee continues an existing grant (3000 stETH until exhausted or the program stopped) to further help spread awareness about liquid staking technology and liquid staking tokens like stETH.

Next steps

If the proposal is supported, funding for disbursement to finance Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation would be requested from the DAO via Easy Track motions to the operational multisig (0x55897893c19e4B0c52731a3b7C689eC417005Ad6).

Lido Ecosystem BORG Foundation will aim to deliver quarterly community calls to review accomplishments and key results and actuals reporting.