Lido begins its largest validator migration as Ethereum moves to 0x02 staking
Curated Module v2 is moving more than 265,000 validators onto Ethereum's post-Pectra credential format, cutting validator count while keeping the stake inside the network.
The change follows Ethereum's Pectra upgrade, which allows validators using 0x02 credentials to carry an effective balance as high as 2,048 ETH instead of the former 32 ETH ceiling. Lido says its migration will move legacy 0x01 credentials into the newer format through validator consolidations. Stakers do not need to take action because the upgrade is handled at the protocol level.
Fewer validators, less consensus overhead
Lido estimates that the consolidation will take Ethereum's validator count from roughly 880,000 to about 628,000, before accounting for new validators or other consolidations. The stake securing the chain is being reorganized into larger validator records; the move is not a withdrawal of that ETH from Ethereum.
The protocol also expects the share of ETH secured by compounding validators to rise from 32.06% to 52.21%. In Lido's estimate, the smaller validator set would cut consensus-layer attestation messages by about 29% per epoch and reduce the operational load associated with maintaining the network's validator registry.
A new accountability layer for operators
CMv2 also changes the economics around Lido's curated operators. The module adds ETH-backed bonds and penalties that can cover losses linked to downtime, slashing, underperformance or execution-layer reward violations. It also groups operators by contributions such as geographic and client diversity, public-goods work and service to Lido's wider infrastructure.
The module is live, but the migration will take time. Lido points to an Ethereum activation queue of more than 40 days and says the legacy module will remain available as a fallback while stake moves across. A later phase is intended to make stake distribution more responsive to fees, performance and other transparent parameters.
