Lido sunsets Solana staking due to lack of funds; halts deposits effective immediately

The team revealed that it came to this decision after an extensive DAO forum discussion and a community vote that favored the sunsetting of Lido on Solana.

“After much discussion and a vote by Lido DAO members, it was decided that the best course of action would be to wind down Lido on Solana.”

In September, the Lido P2P validator responsible for the Solana blockchain requested financial support from the Lido DAO or, alternatively, the project’s termination. At the time, the validator emphasized that it would be difficult for the project to achieve its objectives without proper funding.

Despite this decision, Lido still provides staking services for Polygon (MATIC) and Ethereum (ETH).

Timeline for sunsetting Solana staking

Lido says it would stop accepting deposits for staking Solana effective immediately.

While stSOL holders will continue to receive rewards, the team warned that it would terminate support to its Solana frontend by February 2024. After this date, stakers will have to use the Command Line Interface (CLI) to unstake their assets.

Meanwhile, node operators can voluntarily start leaving the platform by November 17.

Information on the protocol’s website showed that the unstaking process might take as much as three days to complete.

Lido is the dominant liquid staking protocol enabling users to earn rewards by staking assets on various protocols and blockchains.

According to its website, the protocol has staked over $14 billion worth of digital assets and disbursed more than $700 million in rewards. Its Solana platform has staked over 2.3 million SOL, valued at approximately $55 million.

Lido’s decision is coming on the heels of a similar one it made in March to end its staking program on the Polkadot (DOT) and Kusama (KSM) blockchains.