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GOOSE-2026 & EGGs-2026 H1 Report
Executive Summary
This report summarizes progress toward the Lido DAO 2026 goals and the Ecosystem Grant gRequest (EGG) annual grant for January 1 to June 30, 2026.
Lido Staking TVL continued to grow despite ETH price decline of 47%, and broader market disruptions due to the LayerZero/Kelp DAO exploit in April. Lido Staking TVL rose to 9.13M ETH, up 386k from the start of the year (8.74M, incl. the entry queue and excl. the exit queue). However, Lido’s staking market share dropped from 23.93% to 21.18%. The overall staking market grew faster; most new capital entered custody and institutional segments, where the Lido Protocol has traditionally been less competitive.
Development objectives were nevertheless met: the Lido Core upgrade was delivered, the DAO take rate grew, and NEST, the automated buyback mechanism, was built. The non-staking product Wisp was also introduced. Operations remained surplus-generating at $1.61M before the Kelp-related one-off expense, which turned the overall result into a $4.45M loss.
Here is how the period unfolded against each of the four GOOSE-2026 goals:
Expand the Staking Ecosystem: Institutional adoption of stETH deepened, while TVL grew by 386k ETH despite overall market share declining. However, overall performance remains below targets in all areas.
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Adoption of stETH by the traditional financial sector increased steadily during the period, as key integrations and use cases emerged:
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Anchorage Digital became the first federally chartered US bank to custody and mint wstETH, making the asset accessible to holders who require custody by a chartered bank.
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WisdomTree’s Physical Lido Staked Ether ETP, Europe’s first fully-staked ETH ETP, holding stETH exclusively, reached 20,952 ETH, up 23% since its December launch.
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The US stETH ETF has not launched yet: VanEck’s S-1 is still under review.
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stVaults reached 5,768 ETH, well below the target, with adoption constrained by both the long entry queue and the complexity of B2B integrations.
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Lido’s share of staked ETH ended at 21.18%, down from 23.93% at the start of the year, as market growth increasingly came from institutional and exchange staking segments, predominantly DATs and staking ETFs.
Ensure Protocol Resilience: The Lido Core Upgrade (Curated Module v2, Staking Router v3, and Community Staking Module v3), aimed at reducing the protocol maintenance cost and supporting Ethereum goals with regard to network optimizations, was fully delivered.
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The fee changes voted in at the end of 2025 held through H1, with the DAO share of rewards increasing owing to things such as the SDVT Regular Clusters wind-down, which increased the effective take rate to 6.15% without changing the 10% protocol fee.
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The groundwork for ValMart, the validator market that routes stake by performance, cost, and decentralization, is in place; ValMart launch is expected in early 2027.
Scale New DAO Revenue Streams: Lido Earn has become a multi-segment product suite that now operates two vaults with distinct yield and risk profiles.
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EarnETH closed the period at 90.6k ETH TVL.
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EarnUSD, Lido’s first stablecoin vault, reached $32.1M.
However, revenue growth is not in place because the fees were periodically switched off to promote growth, resulting in $0.54M ARR as of June 30.
Explore Vertical Expansion and Real-World Business Applications: Foundations have moved from the research phase to active development: two ideas for low-risk DeFi are being built, and Wisp, the first new product, has already been introduced.
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Research across DeFi has converged on two ideas designed for the low-risk DeFi segment, now in active development (technical and legal delivery timelines, budgets, commercial goals, GTM); they will be presented in the autumn.
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Wisp, a confidential AI agent harness owned by Lido DAO, surpassed 3,000 waitlist registrations.
Financial results: Lido’s Core operations generated a surplus in H1 2026, despite a declining ETH price that reduced USD-denominated revenue.
Total Net DAO Revenue amounted to $15.9M, while Total Foundations’ Expenses were $14.3M, with a positive operating result of $1.6M before non-recurring items. After the DAO’s decision on the Kelp incident one-off, Total Result for H1 was negative at $4.5M.
Spending in underperforming areas was reduced. H1 spending totaled $14.3M, versus an annual request of ~$60M (incl. Discretionary Budget), with full-year spending projected at ~$37.7M. This is below the baseline $41M and down from $45.5M in 2025.
The Treasury position excluding LDO decreased 44%, from $157.5M to $88.3M, valued at the 30 June closing ETH price of $1,569. Of the $69.2M reduction, $60.9M reflects the ETH price decline and $4.5M was allocated to LDO acquisitions (stETH/LDO trades and the LTI reserve); the remainder reflects the negative H1 result and other accrual movements. See the detailed Treasury bridge in the financial overview.
As of August 25, 2026, with ETH at $2,441, Treasury value is ~$121.3M, up 38%.
What Comes Next
In H2, the staking unit will continue to advance growth of the protocol through expansion of usage of stETH by institutions and the DeFi-native user segment, while supporting the consolidation of the validator count on Ethereum via the migration to the Curated Module v2 for the lion’s share of the protocol’s validators. The ValMart launch in early 2027 will further increase protocol resilience and improve its economic profile. The primary objective for H2 is scaling the DAO’s new revenue streams: increasing institutional staking TVL, expanding stVaults distribution, and developing Lido Earn to meet its TVL and revenue targets. Wisp, a standalone product, will continue to evolve. Two more products for the low-risk DeFi segment, now in development, are expected to be introduced before year-end.
Read full report: Lido DAO GOOSE-2026 Report H1 2026
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