Lido buyback announced

Lido’s governance team posted a proposal to convert 10,000 units of the protocol’s staked‑Ether reserves into LDO purchases and to execute that acquisition in ten smaller stages, each requiring separate tokenholder sign‑off. (theblock.co) If approved, the plan would bring roughly 70 million LDO back into the protocol’s treasury — about 8–8.5% of the tokens currently in circulation — at a time when LDO has been trading near its record lows. (daotimes.com) The funds being spent are denominated in staked Ether, a liquid token that represents Ether already deposited in Lido and earning staking rewards while remaining tradeable; the proposal says buys would be placed using limit orders or dollar‑cost averaging to avoid a single large market shock. (research.lido.fi) Operationally, the Ecosystem Operations team wrote the proposal and the Lido Growth Committee would execute purchases in 1,000‑staked‑Ether tranches, with each tranche expected to require a separate governance vote and any acquired tokens returned to the treasury where they would not be eligible to vote while held. (theblock.co) That execution choice matters because the buyback uses a treasury exposure to staked Ether (so the effective cost depends on Ether’s price) and because tokens held in treasury are not being burned — the move reduces the freely tradeable supply immediately but does not permanently remove LDO unless the treasury later decides to destroy holdings. (kucoin.com) The proposal follows a year in which Lido reported revenue falling to $40.5 million — down about 23% year‑over‑year — and comes alongside a longer running, separate effort called NEST that would create an automated on‑chain buyback mechanism when specific revenue and Ether‑price triggers are met. (theblock.co) (phemex.com)