Lido Earn’s Vaults Add Onchain Cover From Firelight
Depositors are covered automatically with nothing to buy, and every claim is validated by independent firms
Press Release Disclaimer: This is a press release distributed through the XPR Media network. It has not been independently verified by our newsroom.
British Virgin Islands, BVI, Nov. 06, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Firelight, an onchain cover-enablement protocol for DeFi, today announced that cover will go live on Lido Earn, establishing vault-level cover for depositors against predefined protocol failures, including smart contract exploits and oracle failures. Lido Earn features DeFi vault products holding around $259 million in cryptoassets. Cover extends beyond the vault contracts to the protocols where cryptoassets are actually deployed.
For the largest DeFi products, protection is becoming part of the design rather than something vault users arrange on their own. Lido Earn already runs with a first-loss mechanism funded by the Lido DAO, and Firelight adds an independent layer on top, with exploits reviewed by independent parties not connected to any Lido foundation nor Firelight. It is a notable step for DeFi’s largest liquid staking protocol at a time when more capital reaches the market through vaults. Curated vault assets have grown 39% over the past year, while the capital behind onchain cover amounts to just 0.14% of the $88.3 billion locked in DeFi.
“Yield alone is no longer enough. Users need to understand the risks they take and the mechanisms designed to protect against defined losses. Adding Firelight alongside Lido Earn’s existing first-loss protection introduces another transparent layer of loss protection at the vault level and helps set a higher standard for how onchain earn products approach risk.”
— Marin Tvrdić, Strategy and Partnerships, Lido Earn
Firelight is built to fix the parts of crypto cover that vault users have learned not to trust. Every cover market’s terms, including what is covered, the price and the capacity, are published onchain before cover starts, so users know exactly what is protected before a loss instead of arguing over it afterwards. In addition, Firelight:
- Names covered events in advance: smart contract and governance exploits, oracle failures, bad debt, depegs from mechanism failure and blocked redemptions.
- Does not assess exploit events: Every exploit event is confirmed and validated against published coverage scope by an independent panel of Hypernative, Cyfrin, Credora, GFX Labs and Native.
- Keeps the money behind a payout separate: Cover is backed by assets staked to the Firelight Protocol with low correlation to DeFi, so the capital available for coverage is not exposed to the event that triggered it.
“DeFi is reaching people well beyond crypto natives, people who want the opportunity for the returns without having to become experts in smart contracts and risk models,” said Connor Sullivan, Chief Strategy Officer at Firelight. “That is a good thing for the industry, and it puts the responsibility on the infrastructure underneath. Firelight is taking on that role, protecting depositors from day one and showing them exactly what is covered. Doing that alongside Lido, one of the most established names in DeFi, is an exciting opportunity to show what safer and simpler DeFi looks like for everyone coming in.”
Lido Earn features two vaults. EarnETH, holding around $198 million, includes ETH and stETH strategies across blue-chip DeFi protocols for capital efficiency, while EarnUSD, holding around $50 million, runs USD-denominated reward strategies. Firelight’s cover is already live on Sentora’s USD Protected and Protected RWA vaults and on the Sentora-curated Protected Strategies USDC vault available through Kraken’s DeFi Earn, where it provides $30.5 million of cover. The protocol is audited by OpenZeppelin, Coinspect and 0xMacro. Cover on Lido Earn goes live today, on November 5th. Information on cover eligibility and terms and conditions of Firelight can be found here.
About Firelight
Firelight is an onchain cover protocol that establishes a protection layer for the infrastructure behind digital asset products. Platforms enable cover on transparent, verifiable terms registered onchain, while stakers back that cover through non-custodial vaults using bonded XRP on the Flare Network to earn protocol emissions generated by the protocol’s operations and the coverage fees it captures.
Every cover event is validated by the Firelight Risk Consortium, an independent panel of security and risk firms. Firelight’s contracts are audited by OpenZeppelin, Coinspect, and 0xMacro, with a competitive audit hosted on Immunefi. Firelight was incubated by Sentora and receives technical support services from Sentinel Labs, which just raised an $8 million seed round led by Gumi Cryptos Capital. Learn more.
About Lido
Lido is an open-source, liquid-staking middleware that provides a way to participate in the blockchain network validation process and reap rewards for this activity. With a mission to democratize staking, Lido middleware lets users connect with node operators and stake their digital assets without the need to individually maintain hardware. Lido users can interact with various third-party DeFi applications that have independently integrated and support the liquid staking tokens. For further information, please visit https://lido.fi
Lido Earn features a set of vaults designed to provide simplified access to on-chain reward opportunities across Ethereum. Instead of manually selecting strategies or interacting with multiple protocols, users deposit assets into a vault that allocates capital across curated strategies on their behalf. Lido Earn currently includes two vaults: (1) EarnETH, for ETH-denominated assets, and (2) EarnUSD, for USD-denominated stablecoins.
Each vault routes deposited capital across integrated DeFi protocols and strategies designed to generate rewards over time.
pr@web3newswire.com
