Staking protocol Lido has finally activated its long-awaited automatic LDO token buyback program. The programme, also known as NEST (Network Economic Support Token), was first floated last year.
According to the project, the program is now live on the mainnet with a daily limit set at $50K and annual purchases capped at $10M.
It seeks to ensure automatic, dynamic LDO buybacks, taking into account prevailing market conditions. Under the NEST design, only 50% of the daily staking revenue exceeding $109K will be directed to the buyback program.
That translates to a $40 million annual revenue baseline. Anything below that ($109K daily) means there will be no buyback.
That said, the bought LDO tokens won’t be burned but will be owned by the DAO treasury. The program was previously criticized for being too low compared to other protocols.
For comparison, Hyperliquid is doing about $100M in annual buyback. Aster and Uniswap run a $40M annual program while PUMP eyes $35M. Compared to LDO’s $10M annual plan, it was 3-10x smaller than other ongoing programs.
Lido’s bumpy buyback start
That said, the current staking rewards were still below the daily average of $109K to trigger the buyback program. According to DeFiLlama, the protocol has been making around $75K in daily revenue in August.
The last time Lido crossed above $109K in daily revenue was back in April 2026 during broader Q2 recovery across the crypto market.
In other words, NEST will truly kick in if broader market sentiment improves. Even so, most experts hailed the dynamic buyback move. Gabriel Shapiro, a pro-crypto attorney, said,
How buybacks should be.
Worth noting that not everyone supports crypto buybacks in crypto, especially during market downturns.
Critics view it as a waste of funds and propose directing the same to crucial ecosystem development. Some projects, such as Helium, shut down their buyback program.
Lido sees slow recovery above $0.28
On the price charts, the token has defended $0.28 support in August. This helped stop the July dump, but a strong recovery has been elusive. As of writing, price action was still below key moving averages (50-day EMA and 200-day MA).
A strong upside potential could be confirmed if the moving averages are decisively reclaimed as support (above $0.33).
Final Summary
- Lido activated its automatic buyback program, which is triggered if annual revenue hits $40M, but is limited to $10M in annual purchases.
- Daily staking revenue has remained below the automatic buyback trigger level ($109K) since April
