Proposal: Enable $LDO Staking with Protocol Revenue Sharing

Proposals
11

Thanks for raising the point about development spending — it’s absolutely essential. Fortunately, we can now reference real estimates to assess feasibility.

:bar_chart: Based on public reports and on-chain dashboards:

  • Estimated protocol revenue: ~$102M/year
  • Q1 2025 spending (dev, audits, ops, etc): ~$56.6M
    → Annualized: ~$226M
  • Estimated net income (conservative)**: ~$51.6M/year

:receipt: Here’s a simplified chart showing the financial snapshot:

Lido Protocol – 2025 Estimates

  • Protocol Revenue: $102M
  • Development & Operations (Annualized): $226.4M
  • Estimated Net Income: $51.6M

![Lido Revenue vs Spending vs Net Income - Chart](Please upload the image manually here and replace this line with image description if needed)

:magnifying_glass_tilted_left: Insight: Even with strong development investment, there remains meaningful net income that could be used for:

  • Staking rewards
  • Buybacks
  • Treasury growth

And all this without jeopardizing core operations.

Enabling a small (e.g. 5–10) revenue share would not break the budget — it would simply help retain token holders and better align incentives.

Let’s continue analyzing and designing something sustainable.