Risk Disclosures: ETH Staking Vault (Lido stVaults / DeFi Wrapper)

Non-Custodial Architecture

This vault operates on a fully non-custodial basis. Nansen does not hold, control, or take custody of any user assets at any point. All ETH is held and managed exclusively by audited smart contracts deployed on the Ethereum blockchain. Users retain on-chain ownership of their deposit at all times, represented by STV pool share tokens in their own wallet. Nansen cannot unilaterally access, move, or freeze user funds.

1. Smart Contract Risk

Risk: This vault interacts with multiple smart contract layers — the DeFi Wrapper pool, the underlying Lido stVault, and the Lido VaultHub. A bug or exploit in any layer could affect staked assets.

Compensating controls: Nansen did not develop these smart contracts. This vault is built entirely on Lido's DeFi Wrapper — an open-source, production-grade smart contract toolkit developed and maintained by Lido. All DeFi Wrapper contracts were independently audited by MixBytes (January 2026) across a 12-day engagement by four auditors, yielding no critical or high severity findings. The deployed bytecode is publicly verifiable on-chain.

MixBytes Lido DeFi Wrapper Security Audit Report (January 2026)

2. Operator Trust

Risk: This vault was deployed by Nansen using the Lido DeFi Wrapper Factory. Users must trust Nansen as the deploying and managing operating party.

3. Validator Slashing

Risk: Validators can be slashed by the Ethereum protocol for provable misbehaviour (e.g. equivocation), resulting in a reduction of principal. Losses are socialized proportionally across pool depositors.

4. Withdrawal Queue and Liquidity

Risk: Withdrawals are subject to an Ethereum withdrawal processing queue and a minimum delay. Under high network congestion or low vault ETH balance, the time to receive funds may be extended.

5. Ethereum Network and Protocol Risk

Risk: Future changes to the Ethereum base protocol — including hard forks or consensus rule updates — could affect staking yields or withdrawal mechanics.

6. Variable Staking Returns

Risk: Staking rewards are not fixed and depend on Ethereum network participation rates, validator performance, and protocol parameters. Returns may vary over time.

This vault employs no active investment strategy. ETH is staked passively via a Lido stVault deployed and operated by Nansen. At no point does Nansen take custody of user assets — all funds are held and governed exclusively by on-chain smart contracts. Nansen does not guarantee the performance or future availability of any third-party protocol integrated within this vault, including Lido stVaults and the Lido DeFi Wrapper.