Revoke Canonical Status of (w)stETH Bridge Endpoints on Selected Chains and Authorize NEC for Revocations

Summary

This proposal seeks LDO token holders’ approval to:

• revoke the recognized canonical status of (w)stETH bridge endpoints on zkSync Era, Mode, Scroll, Mantle, Swell, Zircuit, Soneium, Polygon PoS, and Lisk;
• authorize the Network Expansion Committee (NEC) to revoke the recognized canonical status of (w)stETH bridge endpoints in the future.

The proposal aims to keep Lido DAO’s multichain strategy lean and efficient by focusing on networks where (w)stETH demonstrates meaningful adoption, while enabling a more operationally efficient revocation process that keeps public recognition status intentional, accurate, and up to date.

No immediate action is required from holders of (w)stETH on the affected networks. Revoking canonical recognition of bridging endpoints does not place currently bridged or future-bridged tokens at risk, nor does it affect users’ ability to hold or use (w)stETH on these networks. This proposal does not seek to disable bridge infrastructure, force user migration, or make a technical judgment on the safety of any specific bridge.

Rationale

Over the past several years, multiple (w)stETH bridge endpoints have been formally recognized as canonical via Lido DAO governance (see the Lido Multichain hub). The most recent bridge endpoints were recognized by the NEC, acting on behalf of Lido DAO. However, over time, across the previously recognized chains, conditions have evolved unevenly. On several networks, the original integration thesis no longer holds for a variety of reasons (for example: changed ecosystem direction shifted away from wstETH-relevant use cases, limited (w)stETH adoption, a competing native LST strategy, technical or maintenance changes, chain sunset plans). At the same time, maintaining canonical status carries ongoing costs for monitoring, security oversight, incident response, communications, integration support, and handling user and integrator inbounds. This makes it important to align ongoing support and oversight with actual usage and ecosystem relevance and to establish a practical process for de-recognizing endpoints where continued canonical status is no longer justified.

In 2024, LDO token holders approved the creation of the NEC to streamline the recognition of (w)stETH bridge endpoints across new networks. Since then, the NEC has helped shift such decisions from repeated DAO-wide votes to an operational process based on unanimous committee decision-making and public forum announcements. As the multichain footprint matures, it is reasonable to consider applying the same logic to revocations. Authorizing the NEC to perform future revocations would reduce unnecessary governance overhead and help keep the set of recognized bridge endpoints accurate, focused, and up to date.

Proposal

It is proposed to:

1. Formally revoke the recognized canonical status of the selected (w)stETH bridge endpoints

Chain	Rationale
zkSync Era	The underlying system bridge contract is being deprecated (only new deposits affected, not withdrawals); the official wstETH bridging UI has been retired and no new wstETH venues are in development on the network
Mode	All-time bridged TVL has never exceeded a few wstETH; no major integrations have emerged
Scroll	wstETH adoption both from a TVL and an integration perspective has remained limited
Mantle	Mantle’s ecosystem strategy centers on its own native LST and LRT (mETH / cmETH); wstETH does not have a comparable role and adoption has remained marginal
Swell	The chain is being sunset
Zircuit	wstETH TVL has significantly declined on the chain; no major wstETH integrations/venues are planned
Soneium	Low TVL; no meaningful DeFi venues for wstETH have emerged on the network since launch
Polygon PoS	The network’s direction has shifted toward stablecoin payments and RWAs; wstETH-related activity has dwindled since the original integration
Lisk	Lisk’s focus on emerging markets and start-up incubation offers limited compatibility with a DeFi ecosystem for wstETH; bridged TVL has remained low since launch

2. Authorize the NEC to revoke the recognized canonical status of (w)stETH bridge endpoints on behalf of Lido DAO

Future NEC revocation decisions would follow the existing NEC guardrails: unanimous committee support and a public forum announcement explaining the decision, including relevant context such as usage, ecosystem conditions, technical considerations, maintenance status, risk factors, or other rationale considered by the committee, and next steps, such as Lido Multichain hub, Lido Docs, and Lido Help updates.

User Impact

No immediate action is required from holders of (w)stETH on the affected networks.

This proposal does not seek to disable bridge infrastructure, force user migration, or make a technical judgment on the safety of any specific bridge. Revocation of canonical recognition means that Lido DAO no longer endorses the relevant bridge endpoints and/or token denominations as canonical. It does not necessarily imply that the bridge, token contract, or any third-party integrations are technically disabled or deprecated at the smart-contract level.

Re-establishing Canonical Recognition

If a network whose bridge endpoints have had their canonical status revoked later seeks renewed canonical recognition, its re-onboarding should follow the NEC’s endorsement principles and the guardrails in place at the time of re-endorsement. A detailed explanation covering the cause of the prior revocation, the current state of the deployment, and any implications for users, liquidity, integrations, and migration paths shall be provided.

Next Steps

If the proposal is approved:

• The recognized canonical status of (w)stETH bridge endpoints on zkSync Era, Mode, Scroll, Mantle, Swell, Zircuit, Soneium, Polygon PoS, and Lisk will be formally revoked, and references to these networks will be updated on the Lido Multichain hub, Lido Docs, and Lido Help.
• Ongoing monitoring, marketing support, and ecosystem development work for (w)stETH on these networks will be wound down.
• NEC will be authorized to revoke the recognized canonical status of (w)stETH bridge endpoints and/or token denominations on supported chains on behalf of Lido DAO and subject to the proposed mandate.