Lido launches $10M LDO buyback - But NEST may remain idle until... CryptoWorld August 16, 2026 3 minutes read 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

Weekly project updates: ether.fi gradually exits EigenLayer, Uniswap Launches Meme-Coin platform, ai16z Foundation To Dissolve, etc. Aug 08, 2026 05:48 1. Ether.fi Shifts Restaking Exposure From weETH to Separate Token weETHs, Phases Out EigenLayer link ether.fi has eliminated all EigenLayer restaking exposure from weETH, converting it into a standard liquid-staking token. Restaking functionality will be migrated to weETHs, a standalone token built on Symbiotic. At present, ether.fi's remaining restaking assets within EigenLayer account for less than 1 %. The proportion is expected to drop to 0 % in Q3 2026, and validator EigenPod withdrawal credentials are scheduled for removal in Q4. ether.fi's total staking business stands at approximately USD 3.3 billion, down from its all-time high of USD 12.43 billion recorded in August 2025. 2. Uniswap Launches Meme-Coin Issuance Platform Pools on Robinhood Chain link Uniswap has launched Pools, a token-launch platform on Robinhood Chain, supporting two launch models: Crowd Launch and Instant Launch. It delivers features including autocompounding liquidity, permanent liquidity locking, front-running protection and optional creator fees. Pools charges no launch-platform fees, only standard Uniswap v4 protocol fees. A 0.25 % LP fee is levied on each trade and automatically converted into permanent liquidity, from which creators may optionally claim 0.05 %. Uniswap notes the platform targets highly volatile meme tokens that could potentially go to zero; tokens launched via Pools receive no review or endorsement from Uniswap Labs. According to data from @Adam_Tehc, Uniswap's new token-launch platform Pools recorded USD 99.1 million in trading volume on its launch day, accounting for roughly 54.2 % of total volume across token-launch platforms on Robinhood Chain for that day. 3. Lido DAO Votes on NEST Auto-Buyback Mechanism to Convert Portion of Staking Revenue to LDO link Lido DAO has announced that the on-chain vote for the NEST automated buyback mechanism kicked off on August 5, with the main voting phase running until 14:00 UTC on August 8. NEST is a rule-based automated system intended to establish an on-chain linkage between Lido protocol performance and LDO. Its design framework and parameters were already approved via Snapshot voting back in May. The mechanism proposes converting staking-revenue proceeds above the operational baseline into LDO via CoW Swap, with the acquired LDO transferred directly into the DAO treasury. Separately, the Lido Alliance BORG has tabled a proposal to appoint Bryce Howarth as a new director; the corresponding Snapshot vote will remain open until 16:00 UTC on August 10. Should the proposal pass, incumbent director Adrian Cachinero Vasiljevic will step down. 4. Hyperliquid's July Perpetual-Swap Volume Hits $218 Billion, Surpassing Combined Volume of Next Seven Rivals link Hyperliquid posted USD 218 billion in trading volume for July, surpassing the combined roughly USD 189 billion of the other seven major perpetual DEXs and accounting for about 54 % of total volume across the top-eight platforms. In the same month, Aster, Lighter and GRVT registered approximately USD 43.6 billion, USD 36.4 billion and USD 34.4 billion in volume respectively. Aggregate trading volume of the top-eight perpetual DEXs fell by around USD 85 billion month-on-month, representing a 17 % drop, yet market liquidity remained heavily concentrated on Hyperliquid. 5. Ondo Founder's Mother Sues for Corporate Control, Seeks Ouster of CEO Ian De Bode link Kathleen Allman, mother of the late Ondo Finance founder Nathan Allman, has filed a lawsuit with the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking control of the company and the removal of Ian De Bode from his positions as CEO and President. The complaint alleges that no active directors remained on Ondo's board following Nathan's passing. De Bode purported to act as CEO without board-level approval and sought to appoint himself as the sole director. Acting as personal representative of Nathan's estate, Kathleen asserts she holds controlling voting power over the firm and is entitled to restructure the board. She subsequently appointed herself as sole director via written stockholder consent and expanded the board. On July 24, together with newly-appointed director Tahnee Towill, she voted to dismiss De Bode from all corporate posts and named Kathleen as Chairwoman and CEO. De Bode denies the allegations, deeming them groundless, and states the existing management continues to enjoy backing from major stakeholders, key investors and the Ondo Foundation. 6. Optimism Foundation Releases Annual Budget Outlook; ~343 Million OP To Enter Circulation Next Year link The Optimism Foundation has released its annual budget update and outlook for the upcoming fiscal year. Approximately 343 million OP tokens are expected to enter circulation between May 2026 and April 2027, including 200 million for the ecosystem fund, 47.6 million for early core contributors, and 15.3 million for investors. Circulating supply is projected to rise to around 2.504 billion OP, accounting for 58.3 % of the total token supply. The Foundation emphasized that all these tokens stem from the original allocation framework; no new token allocations have been requested, and the budget update serves purely transparency-enhancement purposes. 7. World Chain to Deploy EIP-7928 on Mainnet link World Chain announced it will deploy the EIP-7928 specification on mainnet on August 17 via a runtime flag, becoming the first production-grade Layer 2 network to stream complete Block-Level Access Lists (BALs) every 200 milliseconds inside flashblocks. The technology enables validators to verify transactions in parallel during block construction, aiming to boost network throughput to 1 gigagas per second without raising hardware requirements for individual validators. 8. Meme-Coin Total Market Cap Falls to $18.6 Billion in July; Trading Volume Down 20% link The total market capitalization of meme coins fell to USD 18.6 billion in July, down from USD 18.8 billion in June. Trading volume dropped by 20 %, reflecting fading speculative demand and sustained capital outflows from the sector. Murad's meme-coin-only portfolio has declined to roughly USD 10 million one year on, from its July-2025 peak of USD 67 million, marking an approximately 85 % drawdown. 9. ai16z Founder Shaw: Token Fully Wiped Out; Foundation To Dissolve and Focus on Open-Source AI link Shaw, founder of ai16z, posted an announcement renouncing the token and severing all ties with it. He stated the team has endured immense pressure including legal disputes, staff departures and community backlash. Though he never sold any tokens and maintained a modest lifestyle, he decided to let the token go to zero and shut down the foundation, overwhelmed by relentless community criticism and the crypto-gambling culture. Shaw emphasized that the team will retain the IP and keep focusing on the development of the Eliza operating system and open-source AI agents, and no tokens will be associated with Eliza going forward. ai16z is an AI-driven DAO launched by Shaw Walters on Solana in October 2024 as a parody of a16z. It adopts the Eliza / ElizaOS AI-agent core framework for investment decisions and governance. Its flagship token ai16z hit an all-time high of around USD 2.47 in early January 2025 and currently trades at USD 0.000286. The Eliza token also peaked at approximately USD 0.1528 in early January 2025 and is now worth merely USD 0.00012. 10. DeFi TVL Ends Six-Month Consecutive Decline, Rebounds to ~$73.8 Billion in July link After six consecutive months of declines, total value locked (TVL) across decentralized-finance (DeFi) rose 5.3 % month-on-month in July to approximately USD 73.8 billion. Gains were driven largely by long-tail blockchains rather than top-tier networks. The "other blockchains" category more than doubled its TVL from around USD 3.46 billion to USD 7.02 billion, a trend CryptoRank attributes to the launch of Robinhood Chain and rapid growth among smaller blockchains. Ethereum retained the leading position with a TVL of roughly USD 40.46 billion.