GOOSE 2025 cycle: Lido DAO goals for 2026

Summary

GOOSE (Guided Open Objective Setting Exercise) is a framework establishing the open yearly process designed for the Lido DAO to pick a set of short- and medium-term goals. During the 2025 GOOSE proposal window, only one proposal for the upcoming 2026 year was submitted: the GOOSE-3 submission by the Lido Labs Foundation, prepared in collaboration with the Lido Ecosystem Foundation and the Lido Alliance BORG.

The subject of this vote is the adoption of the proposed set of goals.

Rationale

With the upcoming Lido V3 launch, concrete plans for staking growth via stVaults and institutional offerings, and a market-based rebalancing of the protocol for greater sustainability in sight, Lido DAO’s initial mission to build a secure, decentralized, and simple liquid staking protocol for Ethereum has largely succeeded. Lido DAO is now poised for its next major growth chapter.

This proposal sets out a strategic focus for a new approach to growth:

• Vertically Up the Stack - Building end-user products to establish a direct relationship with the user base and gain a stronger strategic position
• Horizontal Expansion - Moving into new asset classes to add breadth, capture new demand, and diversify revenue streams

Proposed 2026 Goals

1. Expand the Staking Ecosystem - Strengthen adoption of stETH and stVaults through active distribution, new integrations, and partnerships, including the expected launch of the staked ETH ETF in the US. Expand the stVaults line with a modular "constructor" for rapid launch of custom DeFi structured products.
2. Ensure Protocol Resilience: Lido Core Upgrade - Deliver Curated Module v2 and Staking Router v3, introducing ValMart, a validator-market mechanic that routes stake by performance, cost, and decentralization.
3. Scale New DAO Revenue Streams: Lido Earn - Expand to serve diverse user segments with tailored yield and risk profiles, scaling into a strong revenue line.
4. Explore Vertical Expansion and Real-World Business Applications - Explore real-business DeFi, connecting offchain economic activity to onchain liquidity, through a dual-track approach: running multiple fast, lean projects aimed at producing faster results, balanced with the pursuit of a single large-scale, long-term opportunity.

Three-Year Vision

The 2026 goals are the first steps toward a proposed evolution from the staking leader into the primary DeFi gateway for real businesses, powering the new era of global finance.

DeFi’s center of gravity is shifting toward real-world business utility. As Ethereum becomes the settlement layer for tokenized assets and real-world finance, this is the environment where the Lido DAO’s next major growth opportunity lies.

Over the next three years, the proposed strategy is for the Lido DAO to take a position at the center of this shift, bridging onchain liquidity with offchain economic activity, developing products for real-world businesses and giving them access to secure, scalable, and composable DeFi infrastructure.