Lido V3 & Fireblocks: Accessing stVaults via WalletConnect

April 23, 2026 in Lido V3 by Lido

Fireblocks is a digital asset and stablecoin infrastructure company used across institutional crypto — by fintechs, exchanges, trading firms, banks, and Web3 businesses — to meet the custody and policy requirements those institutions operate under.

Fireblocks is one of the qualified custodians supporting stVaults, Lido protocol's modular staking infrastructure. stVaults introduce a single-operator architecture that enables large staking entities — including institutions, ETFs, ETPs, and asset managers — to deploy dedicated, customizable vaults with control over validator choice, fee terms, and infrastructure, while retaining on-demand liquidity through optional stETH minting.

Compared to pooled staking approaches, stVaults are designed to address the control-versus-liquidity tradeoff — enabling stakers to run validators with their chosen counterparty, define geography or jurisdictional parameters, and configure MEV routing and insurance mandates to meet specific internal risk and policy requirements.

Fireblocks launched a native Lido integration in September 2024 for Lido Core, the liquid staking product. stVaults are supported too: Fireblocks users can create and manage stVaults using stVaults Web UI via WalletConnect, subject to their existing custody setup.

How It Works

The connection runs over WalletConnect. A Fireblocks user opens the stVaults Web UI, selects WalletConnect in the wallet connection interface, and scans the QR code using the Web3 Wallet section of the Fireblocks mobile app. Once connected, the account can:

Create and manage stVaults
Monitor vault health
Execute emergency procedures

Full setup steps are in the Fireblocks integration guide.

This flow is for vault owners — institutions that want to create and operate their own vault.

Support varies by jurisdiction, entity, and onboarding scope. Before creating a vault, teams should confirm availability and policy settings with their Fireblocks account manager.

Security & Risk

Standard Ethereum staking risks apply — for the full breakdown, see Lido's Risk Assessment Framework for stVaults.

The following measures have been implemented to support the security of Lido V3*:

Smart contracts. Lido V3 stVaults smart contracts have undergone audits by Certora (including formal verification), MixBytes, Consensys Diligence, Composable Security, Ackee Blockchain, and Sigma Prime. An ongoing Immunefi bug bounty offers white hats up to $2M in rewards.
Institutional approval workflows. Onchain actions initiated from the stVaults Web UI route through Fireblocks's institutional approval workflows — where those actions are subject to the user’s internally defined approvals and custody policies ( see Lido integration docs)
Built-in operational controls. stVaults’ design allows Vault Owners to supply/withdraw ETH, mint/repay stETH, trigger voluntary rebalancing and vault closure (available in May 2026 on the Web UI), trigger ETH withdrawals from validators (available in April 2026 on the Web UI), and follow the Health Emergency Guide when vault health parameters fall below thresholds.

* Audits, bug bounties, and operational controls are intended to reduce but do not eliminate underlying protocol or market risks. Additional risks may remain or be unidentified.

For institutions, the key point is that stVaults can be operated within a familiar security model: on-chain actions may be gated by your existing Fireblocks policies, while Lido V3 contracts have undergone audits and include clearly defined emergency procedures. Teams should still run their own diligence on smart contract, operational, and regulatory risks, and ensure internal approvals and monitoring are in place before going live.

Book a call with the Lido Institutional team for further details.

Lido V3 & Fireblocks: Accessing stVaults via WalletConnect

How It Works

Security & Risk

Further Reading