Lido DAO Votes on $20M Buyback Using 10,000 stETH Amid Depressed LDO Prices

TL;DR

• The DAO is voting to use 10,000 stETH, worth about $20 million to $21 million, to buy back LDO on the open market.
• At around $0.31, LDO sits near launch-era lows, with the LDO/ETH ratio 63% below its two-year median and the token down 96%.
• If approved, purchases would target about 70 million LDO, while critics point to 2025 revenue decline and 80 million tokens sold by whales since October.

Lido DAO is weighing a buyback that would turn treasury staking assets into a direct bet on its own depressed token. The proposal puts roughly $20 million of stETH on the table at a moment when confidence in LDO looks shaken. A governance vote now underway would authorize the use of 10,000 stETH, worth about $20 million to $21 million at current prices, to repurchase LDO on the open market. The plan, submitted on March 27, frames the move as a response to what the DAO calls a severe price dislocation between LDO and Ethereum.

The logic behind the proposal rests on how far the token has fallen. LDO is not merely weak, it is hovering near the bottom of its historical range against dollars and ETH. The linked analysis says LDO was trading around $0.31, near its lowest levels since the protocol launched. Its LDO/ETH ratio stood at 0.00016, about 63% below the two-year median, while the token itself remained roughly 96% below its all-time high. That backdrop helps explain why the DAO is treating a buyback as a confidence signal rather than a treasury deployment.

Execution is designed to look measured rather than dramatic. If the vote passes, the Lido Growth Committee would buy in stages instead of trying to shock the market with one large order. The proposal calls for tranches of 1,000 stETH, with the committee expected to use limit orders or dollar-cost averaging to reduce market impact. The target is about 70 million LDO, equal to roughly 8.5% of circulating supply. Any tokens purchased would go back to the treasury and, while held there, would not be eligible to vote in governance.

The deeper issue is that the buyback arrives against a weakening business backdrop. This is a treasury vote happening after a year in which protocol dominance failed to protect the token. Revenue fell 23% year over year in 2025 to $40.5 million from $52.4 million, even though Lido still held a 23.2% share of Ethereum liquid staking. The DAO attributed that pressure to capital moving toward exchange staking, spot ETH ETFs and restaking platforms. Supporters say the buyback could help set a floor, but critics note whale wallets have shed 80 million LDO since October 2025.