Lido (@LidoFinance): LDO Acquisition Programs: Explained

LDO Acquisition Programs: Explained Via Snapshot voting, the Lido DAO has approved two programs to buy $LDO with $stETH. The first one, the LDO Accumulation Program, is a one-time treasury operation focused on acquiring LDO when it performs below target levels. This program is currently active. The second one, NEST Automated LDO Buyback, is a programmatic buyback mechanism to acquire LDO subject to predefined protocol and market parameters. NEST program has been approved by the Lido DAO, via Snapshot voting, but is still pending onchain deployment. Program: LDO Accumulation Program LDO has been performing at historically low levels relative to ETH while Lido protocol fundamentals have remained steady. The LDO Accumulation Program enables the Lido DAO, under governance-approved parameters, to deploy idle treasury stETH into LDO at what it views as a price dislocated from underlying performance. On April 13, the LDO Accumulation Program was approved, giving the Growth Committee a mandate to acquire LDO using up to 10,000 stETH from the DAO treasury, with acquired LDO transferred to the treasury. The Lido DAO retains full beneficial ownership of all stETH deployed and all LDO acquired. Execution runs in 1,000 stETH batches drawn from the treasury via Easy Track (motions are approved optimistically after a standard three-day objection window unless the DAO objects). If both the original motion and its resubmission are objected to, the program is effectively terminated. Maximum tolerated slippage is ≤ 3% from the prevailing market price. Venues include onchain (CoW Swap, 1inch, Uniswap) and offchain (Binance, Bybit, OKX, Gate, Bitget). Batch #1 parameters, published 14 April: 1,000 stETH Price cap 0.000163 LDO/ETH Execution window until 29 May 2026 More details: Snapshot | Research forum Program: NEST Automated Buybacks Network Economic Support Tokenomics (NEST) is a rule-based onchain mechanism designed to acquire LDO when Lido's protocol revenue and the market present favorable conditions. When staking revenue exceeds an operating baseline, a bounded share of the surplus is converted into LDO via CoW Swap. The more the protocol earns, the more LDO is bought. NEST has two modes: LP and Treasury. In LP mode (the proposed launch configuration), LDO is paired with wstETH and deployed as DAO-owned liquidity in a Curve v2 NG pool. In Treasury mode, LDO goes directly to the DAO treasury. Switching between modes requires an onchain vote. Proposed parameters (LIP-36): Revenue baseline: $40M/year (~$109.6k/day) Surplus share: 50% of daily surplus routed to NEST Daily cap: $50,000 (primary safety limiter) Annual cap: $10M (rolling 365-day ceiling) Execution: daily, permissionless via keeper bot, using CoW Swap with Stonks v2 Pool slippage tolerance: 2% on Curve deposits The NEST design and parameters were approved via Snapshot vote on 18 May 2026. More details: Snapshot | Research forum | LIP-36 What’s Next With the NEST design approved, the next step is deploying the mechanism onchain. This requires a DAO Aragon vote, tentatively expected to take place in July. The LDO Accumulation Program continues executing in parallel unless the DAO pauses its Easy Track motions.