Bitwise has completed the first validator consolidation on Lido Core and is now operating as a node operator under Lido’s Curated Module v2 (CMv2). The upgrade is part of a broader migration involving approximately 8.4 million staked ETH, worth roughly $16.5 billion at the time of the announcement, from legacy validators into a more efficient structure. Ethereum’s Pectra hard fork, which went live in May 2025, introduced the 0x02 validator type through EIP-7251, raising the effective-balance limit from 32 ETH to 2,048 ETH. CMv2 uses that capacity to consolidate legacy 0x01 validators, with Lido projecting a roughly one-third reduction in its total validator count and an approximately 29% decline in attestation messages per epoch. EIP-7251 enables balance transfers between validators without full exits and redeposits. Bitwise entered the role after acquiring staking infrastructure provider Chorus One earlier in 2026; Chorus One had already operated as a Lido node operator. CMv2 covers 34 curated operators, all of which now face ETH bonding requirements. Bitwise has not disclosed how many validators it consolidated or how much stake it handled initially. The Lido DAO approved the migration framework in July 2026, the initial phase went live on mainnet that month, and the first consolidations took place in September 2026. Full migration is expected by the first quarter of 2027. The changes are intended to reduce computational pressure on Ethereum’s consensus layer, with lower attestation traffic consuming less bandwidth and allowing faster finality processing, while bonding requirements require operators to commit capital alongside technical resources.