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Bitwise has carried out the first validator consolidation on Lido Core and is now operating as a node operator under Lido’s new Curated Module v2. The milestone represents one of the most consequential structural upgrades to Ethereum’s staking layer since the Merge.
The consolidation is part of a broader migration that aims to restructure approximately 8.4 million staked ETH, worth roughly $16.5B at the time of the announcement, from legacy validators into a leaner, more efficient architecture.
What CMv2 actually changes
To understand why this matters, you need to know how Ethereum validators have worked until now. Under the old system, each validator was capped at 32 ETH in effective balance. That meant staking operations managing large pools of ETH needed thousands of individual validators, each one generating its own attestation messages every epoch.
Ethereum’s Pectra hard fork, which went live in May 2025, changed the rules. Through EIP-7251, it introduced a new validator type, called 0x02, that can handle up to 2,048 ETH in effective balance. That’s 64 times the previous limit per validator.
Lido’s CMv2 migration takes advantage of this by consolidating legacy 0x01 validators into the new 0x02 format. The projected result: a roughly one-third reduction in Lido’s total validator count and an approximately 29% drop in attestation messages per epoch.
The EIP-7251 mechanism allows balance transfers between validators without requiring full exits and redeposits.
Bitwise’s role and the Chorus One connection
Earlier in 2026, Bitwise acquired Chorus One, a staking infrastructure provider that had already been operating as a Lido node operator. That acquisition gave Bitwise both the technical chops and the existing relationship with Lido’s ecosystem to step into this role.
Under CMv2, Bitwise facilitated the first consolidation on Lido Core and now operates as one of the module’s node operators. The new module covers 34 curated operators in total, and for the first time, all of them face ETH bonding requirements.
Bitwise hasn’t disclosed specifics about how many validators it consolidated or the volume of stake it handled during the initial phase.
Timeline and migration progress
The Lido DAO approved the CMv2 migration framework in July 2026. The initial phase went live on mainnet that same month, with the first actual consolidations executed in September 2026.
Full migration is expected to be completed by Q1 2027.
What this means for Ethereum’s staking landscape
The reduction in validator count and attestation messages should ease the computational burden on Ethereum’s consensus layer. A 29% cut in attestation traffic per epoch means less bandwidth consumed and faster finality processing.
The introduction of bonding requirements across all 34 curated operators raises the bar for participation in Lido’s staking infrastructure, requiring operators to put capital at risk alongside their technical capacity.
Disclosure: This article was edited by Editorial Team. For more information on how we create and review content, see our Editorial Policy.
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