Lido Labs Foundation unveiled stVaults on Ethereum’s mainnet on Friday.
stVaults marks a shift from a single product model to shared effort on the protocol by opening its infrastructure to external builders.
Simply put, stVault lets other teams plug into Lido’s staking system instead of building their own from scratch. Until now, developing an Ethereum staking product typically meant setting up validators, integrations, and liquidity independently, which can be an expensive and complex process. stVaults aims to lower this barrier by letting builders use Lido’s existing plumbing while customizing how staking works for their users.
stVaults are isolated staking environments that allow teams to run custom validation configurations and optionally mint stETH while remaining connected to Lido’s liquidity and DeFi integrations. Lido said its core stake protocol remains unchanged, with stVaults working alongside it.
The rollout comes as Ethereum efforts move beyond one-size-fits-all products toward more specialized setups. These include institutional-grade staking with tighter controls, application-specific staking products, and layer 2 networks that integrate staking directly into their infrastructure, all without fragmenting liquidity across competing pools.
Initial deployments include Consensys’ layer-2 network Linea, which uses stVaults to stake a portion of bridged ETH and redirect rewards towards liquidity providers and ecosystem incentives. Blockchain analytics firm Nansen is also using stVaults to launch its first Ethereum staking product.
“stVaults shows how Ethereum staking is evolving. Different users now need different setups,” said Isidoros Passadis, the head of staking at Lido Labs Foundation. “With stVaults, the Lido protocol can support these needs within a single framework while maintaining the liquidity and transparency that stETH is known for.”
Read more: Lido goes modular with Vault-based ‘V3’ upgrade
