Lido’s newly empowered Curated Module Committee could make stETH withdrawals slower under stress if it keeps or raises a protected ETH reserve for validator deposits. The committee gained authority on Sept. 25 to adjust the deposit reserve target through Easy Track motions, up to 9,600 ETH, but as of Sept. 27 the target remained 1,500 ETH and no motion had been opened.
The protocol’s first published plan would temporarily remove the protected deposit slice by setting the target to zero, then consider restoring a 1,500 to 2,000 ETH reserve after the permissionless 0x02 Community Staking Module launches. Lido’s stress model shows that a 1,500 ETH reserve increases the ETH-weighted average time from a stETH withdrawal request to finalization from 2.3 days to 2.6 days in a normal case, and from 6.3 days to 7.9 days under high stress. A 2,000 ETH target would push the stressed average to 8.5 days, while a modeled 10,000 ETH scenario would extend it to 15.7 days.
How much this matters depends on live conditions: the amount of ETH entering the buffer, the size of the withdrawal queue, and whether validators are ready to accept deposits. If enough ETH covers both uses, the target makes little difference to pending withdrawals.
Separately, Ether.fi is completing its exit from EigenLayer restaking by the end of the fourth quarter of 2026. The protocol said less than 1% of its assets remained restaked as of August, and it had already removed restaking from weETH, which now functions as a standard liquid staking token. Users still seeking restaking exposure must opt into a separate product built on Symbiotic.
Ether.fi chief executive Mike Silagadze told CoinDesk there were no meaningful yield opportunities in restaking and there was some perceived risk from stakers. DefiLlama data cited by CoinDesk showed the restaking category held $10.02 billion on Sept. 8 but generated only $99,977 in fees over the previous week. Liquid staking, with $51.87 billion, generated $27.35 million, meaning ordinary staking earned roughly 53 times more per dollar secured.
The broader restaking sector has struggled. The five largest remaining liquid restaking tokens made a combined $953,350 in gross profit in the second quarter of 2026, down from $2.18 million three quarters earlier, according to CoinDesk. Puffer, which raised $23 million, made $21,590 in the quarter. Points programmes that subsidised deposits wound down through 2025, and EigenLayer activated slashing in April 2025, adding a penalty without extra yield. In April this year, an attacker exploited Kelp's cross-chain bridge to mint about $293 million of unbacked rsETH and borrow real ether against it on Aave.
Ether.fi is now rebuilding as a crypto neobank, with a card, borrowing market and vaults. Card fees rose from 17% of monthly revenue in January to 46% in July. Silagadze said neobank revenue has fully replaced revenue lost from restaking and lower ETH prices, and that ether.fi was on track to grow its revenue run rate by about 38% this year. CoinDesk found gross profit fell 47% from $18.71 million in the third quarter of 2025 to $9.99 million in the second quarter of 2026, and restaking was still its second most profitable line at $2.87 million when it decided to leave. EigenLayer has rebranded as EigenCloud, with restaked collateral as a layer underneath, and its holdings stand at $5.10 billion, down from $22.06 billion in August 2025.
