VanEck has withdrawn its registration with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed Lido Staked Ethereum ETF. The asset manager confirmed through a Form RW filing that the registration statement was never declared effective and no shares were ever issued or sold.
The proposed fund was designed to be a first-of-its-kind product that would hold stETH, the liquid staking token issued by the Lido protocol. This structure aimed to provide institutional investors with exposure to Ethereum staking rewards and on-chain transparency through a traditional brokerage account, bypassing the need for direct blockchain interaction or private key management.
While VanEck did not provide a specific rationale for the withdrawal, the decision follows a year of shifting market dynamics. During that period, BlackRock launched its own iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB), which stakes ether directly through validators rather than relying on a third-party liquid staking token. Additionally, Lido’s total value locked has seen fluctuations, and the regulatory landscape regarding liquid staking remains an evolving area of SEC oversight.