LDO Rises 5% as Lido DAO Votes on NEST Buyback Amid EIP-8361 Debate

Lido DAO (LDO) bounced back more than 5% Thursday as the community opened an on-chain vote for the NEST automated buyback system — but ongoing debate over proposed Ethereum staking changes kept pressure on the token. Price and volume snapshot - LDO was trading near $0.293 at the time of reporting, having swung between $0.2757 and $0.3048 over the past 24 hours and recovering roughly 5.2%, according to crypto.news data. - Despite the intraday rebound, LDO is still down about 16.7% over the past week, underperforming the broader crypto market (which rose roughly 1.3% over the same period). - Over 30 days LDO is up about 5.1% after a strong July rally that saw gains as high as ~65% before hitting resistance near $0.40. - 24-hour trading volume was roughly $62.2 million — about 11% lower than the previous day, suggesting eased participation after earlier volatility. Why LDO is under pressure: the EIP-8361 debate A major headwind for liquid-staking tokens like LDO is the ongoing Ethereum community discussion around EIP-8361 (the “Tapered Issuance Burn”). The draft proposal would progressively burn a larger share of validator issuance rewards as the percentage of ETH staked increases — with issuance-based rewards potentially approaching zero if about 50% of ETH supply becomes staked. Though still a draft, EIP-8361 is being priced in by traders because lower staking rewards would reduce the attractiveness of products such as Lido’s stETH, potentially lowering TVL, fees and DAO revenue. Critics warn tapering rewards could push higher-cost solo validators out of operation while favouring large providers that can spread costs. Proposal authors say the measure would curb ETH issuance and reduce the risk of excessive staking concentration. NEST vote: what’s being decided Lido DAO launched the final on-chain vote for NEST (Network Economic Support Tokenomics) on Aug. 5; the main voting window closes Aug. 8 at 14:00 UTC. Key mechanics of NEST: - Uses a $40 million annual staking-revenue baseline. When daily revenue exceeds the baseline, 50% of the eligible surplus can flow into NEST, subject to a $50,000 daily cap and a rolling annual cap of $10 million. - Under the initial liquidity configuration, half the eligible budget would buy LDO via CoW Swap; the other half would be converted to wstETH and paired with purchased LDO in a Curve liquidity pool. - Lido DAO would retain the resulting LP tokens; purchased LDO would not be burned. - A prior Snapshot vote approving the final NEST design passed decisively, with 52.37 million LDO (94.5% of participating tokens) in favor. Technical picture and near-term levels - Recent price action shows buyers defending the $0.275–$0.280 area after a brief drop to $0.2751. - LDO sits slightly below the lower Bollinger Band at $0.2946; the mid-band is at $0.3577 and the upper band near $0.4208. - Daily RSI is around 37.57 and below its signal average (53.56), signalling that bearish momentum has blunted July’s uptrend but the token is not deeply oversold. - Key levels to watch: a close below $0.275 could expose $0.250 and the June low near $0.235. Reclaiming $0.305 would be the first bullish recovery signal, with resistance thereafter around $0.320–$0.330 and the Bollinger midpoint near $0.358. Outlook NEST offers a structured mechanism to channel a portion of Lido’s surplus revenue into LDO support and DAO-owned liquidity, but its real buying power will depend on Lido’s ongoing staking revenue. That leaves the outcome of the Ethereum staking debate — particularly EIP-8361 — as a primary risk factor for LDO holders in the near term.