Lido DAO withdraws support from LayerZero, throws weight behind Wormhole and Axelar for crypto bridge.

Lido DAO has withdrawn its support for LayerZero’s cross-chain bridge solution and instead endorsed competing interoperability providers Wormhole and Axelar for moving its wrapped staked ether (wstETH) across blockchains. The decision followed months of tension that began when LayerZero unilaterally deployed a wstETH bridge and marketed it in ways many Lido stakeholders viewed as implying official Lido approval, despite no completed governance vote or canonical designation from the DAO. Lido contributors also raised concerns that the LayerZero-based bridge had not been fully audited or formally vetted under Lido’s security and risk frameworks before being promoted to users. In response, Lido DAO chose to back Wormhole and Axelar as preferred providers for cross-chain wstETH connectivity, effectively rebuking LayerZero’s approach and signaling that any “official” Lido bridge must pass a more rigorous, DAO-driven evaluation and governance process. This shift matters because Lido’s wstETH is one of the largest assets in DeFi by value, so its canonical bridge choices influence where liquidity concentrates, which bridge standards gain traction, and how security and trust assumptions are set for cross-chain staking derivatives. The move also highlights growing scrutiny of bridge governance and messaging-layer risk, with Lido positioning its brand and users away from architectures or deployments it does not directly oversee or endorse.

✨ AI-generated background, compiled from web sources — not editorial content.

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