ido CSM Not Depositing or Activating New Nodes, but Allnodes Still Charging Hosting Fees — What Should I Do?

Node Operators
1

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out to ask for clarification and advice regarding the current situation with Lido CSM (Community Staking Module) nodes deployed via Allnodes.

I’ve deployed 10 CSM validator nodes through Allnodes several weeks ago, but they still haven’t been activated. It seems that Lido hasn’t made any new deposits or activations for a while now.

Meanwhile, Allnodes continues to charge hosting fees for these inactive nodes, even though they’re not producing any rewards or being used in the network.

My questions are:

  1. Is there an official update from Lido about when (or whether) new CSM nodes will be funded and activated?

  2. What is the recommended action for node operators in this situation — should we keep the nodes deployed and continue paying hosting fees, or cancel them and withdraw our ETH?

  3. If we cancel, is there any impact or requirement we should be aware of (e.g., refund or eligibility loss)?

It would be great if someone from the Lido team or other operators could share their experience or provide some official guidance.

Thanks in advance for your help and clarification!

Best regards,

3 Likes
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Understandable that this feels off. You’ve deployed infrastructure through Allnodes and are paying hosting fees, yet your validators haven’t been activated. This pause isn’t caused by Allnodes or by any operational backlog. Although all new deposits are currently prioritized for the CSM module (ahead of the SDVT and Curated modules), they still depend entirely on staking user inflows and withdrawals from the protocol. These movements are unpredictable and not controlled by Lido.

If you were hosting your own node instead of using Allnodes, you’d face the same waiting period — validators must remain online and ready until user deposits reach them. That readiness is simply part of how validator activation works.

To answer your questions directly:

  1. It’s impossible to predict when your validators will be deposited, since future inflows and outflows are uncertain.Therefore there’s no official announcement when new CSM validators receive deposits. You can check the last deposit time here, subscribe to the CSM Telegram bot with your Node Operator ID (find it on the CSM widget) for alerts when your keys are deposited, or simply watch for your keys to become Active in the CSM widget.

  2. Waiting until deposits arrive before running your validator is not recommended. Deposits can occur at any time without notice, and a validator must be online and fully synced to begin duties immediately after activation. Being offline at that point leads to missed attestations and penalties from the first epoch. The best approach is to keep your validator online and simply wait it out until deposits are made.

  3. If you decide to cancel (i.e., remove keys from the waiting queue), CSM charges 0.02 ETH per validator/key (0.01 ETH for ICS, if applicable). I’m not sure whether Allnodes adds any additional fees - please check with them directly.

These questions are also great to ask in the CSM channels on the Lido Discord (e.g., #community-staking-general, #csm-mainnet), where plenty of folks discuss topics like this.”

3 Likes
3

Gm @Thieu_Anh!

Thanks for asking. Let me provide answers to your questions:

Currently CSM has the priority in the Lido protocol deposits order. However, the deposits can only occur when there is some depositable ETH in the buffer. RN the withdrawal demand exceeds the deposits inflow. Hence, all deposited ETH is used to finalize withdrawal requests and no ETH is deposited to the modules. There is no feasible way to predict when deposits to the Lido protocol will surpass withdrawal demand. Yo can read more here - Discord

Also note that there is an internal queue in CSM - Community Staking Module | Lido Make sure to check how many keys are in front of your keys in the queue.

This decision is fully on Node Operators. If you plan to participate in Lido CSM then you will have to get deposits via the queue anyway. Note that once your keys are deposited and activated you need to have your validation setup up and running to avoid penalties on the Ethereum network.

Note that in CSM your bonded ETH acquires stETH rewards even when your keys are in the queue. Given 1.3 ETH bond for validator and latest stETH APR of 2.7% one can expect about 0.0028 ETH worth of rewards for each validator key in CSM even when the key is not deposited.

First of all CSM is permissionless. Hence, there is no such thing as eligibility (except for special benefits programs like ICS - Community Staking Module | Lido). If you decide to quit CSM while your keys are in the queue, you will have to pay keyRemovalCharge of 0.02 ETH for each deleted key to be able to claim bond tokens back. If your validators have already been deposited to, you don’t need to pay any fees and can simply exit them using your validator client.

I admit that there is a lot to unpack here, so feel free to ask for additional details here or in official Lido Discord - Lido