Lido Opens Higher-Balance Ethereum Validators With A Deliberately Small Start

Lido has opened a permissionless route to Ethereum validators that can hold much larger effective balances, but the first allocation is deliberately limited. Its October 23 launch of 0x02 Community Staking Module separates gaining access from receiving the full amount of stake a validator could eventually support. The launch announcement sets the bond at 32 ETH for the first key and 30 ETH for each additional key. Lido supplies the allocated stake. New keys first receive a 32 ETH seed deposit; further deposits follow after activation through a separate top-up queue.