Ethereum liquid staking protocol Diva Staking announced it will wind down operations and will not launch on mainnet, citing a complete depletion of funds in mid-2024. Three team members continued development for approximately two and a half years without income or salary but ultimately could not sustain the effort. Users who pre-deposited into the early staking vault can withdraw funds via Enzyme. The protocol launched on the Hoodi testnet this summer and ran for four months without failure, but no major participants were willing to help bootstrap the mainnet. The team also cited inability to afford new audits and the costs of launching and maintaining a complex protocol. Diva expressed concern that AI makes it easier to discover vulnerabilities, potentially allowing complex systems to bypass audits and put user funds at risk. The team also noted that current market dynamics favor compliance, ETFs, and regulation, placing decentralized protocols at a competitive disadvantage.