ChainThink report, July 27: According to CoinDesk, the liquid staking protocol Lido has announced its largest upgrade since Lido V2, initiating the integration of over 8 million staked ETH (stETH, valued at approximately $16.5 billion) into the new validator architecture launched post-Ethereum Pectra upgrade.

Lido states that this integration is expected to reduce the total number of Ethereum validators by roughly one-third and decrease the network-wide validation message volume per epoch by approximately 29%.

This upgrade will migrate Lido’s professional node operators to the Curated Module v2 (CMv2), for the first time requiring curated module operators to lock ETH as a stake-based performance bond.

Lido confirms that all existing 34 operators are planning to transition to CMv2, with no operator currently exiting due to the stake requirement.

Isidoros Passadis, Head of Staking at Lido Labs Foundation, described this as the most significant transformation of the Lido Core staking mechanism since Lido V2.

The migration is projected to reduce the protocol’s annualized staking yield by approximately 0.28%, while validators will continue earning rewards until their exit.