Lido has officially launched stVaults on the Ethereum mainnet, designed to expand ETH staking beyond its existing model.
Instead of a single pooled staking product, the stVaults provide modular, customizable staking vaults.
But Lido’s native token, Lido DAO (LDO), has remained unaffected by the positive development, maintaining its bearish stance.
Lido’s stVaults signal a new era for Ethereum staking
Historically, Lido aggregated user deposits into a single pool and issued stETH as a standardised liquid staking token.
That model worked well for retail users but offered limited flexibility for institutions and advanced builders.
stVaults change this dynamic by allowing developers to create bespoke staking vaults with configurable parameters.
Builders can now choose node operators, define validator strategies, customise fee structures, and set reward distribution rules.
Institutions benefit from the ability to embed compliance requirements and operational controls directly into their staking setups.
This modular design lowers the barrier to entry for staking products without requiring teams to manage validator infrastructure themselves.
Layer-2 networks are particularly well-positioned to leverage stVaults to integrate Ethereum staking natively into their ecosystems.
Crucially, these vaults still connect to Lido’s existing stETH liquidity, preserving DeFi composability.
Early adoption from operators like P2P.org, Chorus One, Kiln, and Everstake highlights strong infrastructure-level demand.
LDO price fails to reflect protocol progress
Despite the strategic importance of stVaults, the Lido DAO (LDO) token has experienced a sharp seven-day decline of over 11%.
The token currently trades near $0.47, placing it close to multi-year lows.
On a yearly timeframe, LDO is down more than 77%, dramatically underperforming Ethereum itself.
This weakness reflects a combination of technical breakdowns, institutional selling, and macro market pressure.
Technically, LDO is trading below all major moving averages, including the 7-day and 30-day SMAs.
The RSI reading near 24 signals extreme oversold conditions rather than growing accumulation.
Meanwhile, a negative MACD histogram confirms that bearish momentum remains intact.
From an on-chain perspective, repeated large transfers to centralised exchanges suggest continued distribution by early investors.
Notably, wallets linked to institutional backers have moved millions of LDO to exchanges in recent months.
These sales create a persistent supply overhang that suppresses any short-term rally attempts.
At the same time, the broader crypto market remains in a risk-off environment.
The Fear and Greed Index sits deep in fear territory, while Bitcoin dominance near 59% reflects capital rotating away from altcoins.
In this context, even strong protocol upgrades struggle to translate into immediate token appreciation.
Lido price forecast
From a trading perspective, the $0.46 level is the most critical support to watch.
A clean break below this zone could expose LDO to a move toward $0.42 and potentially the $0.40 area.
These levels align with historical demand zones and represent the next logical downside targets.
If support holds, oversold conditions could trigger a short-term relief bounce.
On the upside, traders should watch for a reclaim of the $0.51 region, which aligns with the short-term moving average.
A stronger bullish signal would require a move above the $0.59 to $0.63 Fibonacci resistance zone.
Until those levels are reclaimed, the broader trend remains bearish despite improving fundamentals.
For now, LDO sits at a crossroads between long-term innovation and short-term market reality.
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