Ethereum's leading liquid staking protocol, Lido, has successfully launched its stVaults feature on the Ethereum mainnet. This marks a significant evolution from Lido's role as a single liquid staking product to a provider of shared, modular staking infrastructure. The launch, part of the broader Lido V3 upgrade, was announced on January 30, 2026.
stVaults are designed as isolated, customizable staking environments that allow external builders—including developers, Layer 2 networks, and institutional operators—to create tailored staking products. These vaults connect directly to Lido's existing staking and liquidity network, enabling teams to run custom validator configurations and, optionally, mint the liquid staking token stETH. This removes the need for projects to bootstrap their own validator infrastructure, liquidity pathways, and ecosystem integrations from scratch.
The first major adopter is the Layer 2 network Linea, which is implementing stVaults in its "Linea Yield Boost" design. This approach stakes a portion of bridged ETH via stVaults and redirects the staking rewards to liquidity providers and ecosystem incentives, while maintaining a connection to stETH liquidity. Declan Fox, Head of Linea, stated the integration allows bridged ETH to become "productive capital at the protocol level" without altering user experience.
Several professional node operators have also deployed stVaults at launch, including P2P.org, Chorus One, Pier Two, and Sentora (with Kiln). This enables them to offer staking products on dedicated validator infrastructure while accessing Lido's shared liquidity, supporting configurations designed for institutional requirements and specialized strategies. Artemiy Parshakov, VP of Institutions at P2P.org, noted stVaults help move Ethereum staking "beyond generic delegation toward clearer validator environments with stronger accountability."
The launch comes at a time of growing institutional interest in staked ETH products, with VanEck filing for a Lido-staked ETH ETF and WisdomTree introducing a fully staked ETH ETP backed by stETH. Isidoros Passadis, Chief of Staking at Lido Labs Foundation, emphasized that stVaults demonstrate how Ethereum staking is evolving to meet diverse user needs, from L2 integrations to institution-ready setups. Lido has implemented the rollout with conservative initial limits to ensure stable operation before broader ecosystem expansion.
