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Ahmed Barakat
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VanEck Digital Assets asked the SEC last night, UK time, to withdraw the registration for its proposed Lido Staked Ethereum ETF, nearly a year after filing. The request concerns a planned route for brokerage investors to gain exposure to staked Ether through a listed product.
In its filing, VanEck asked the SEC to withdraw the registration statement, its amendments, and supporting exhibits under Rule 477 of the Securities Act of 1933. The request identifies registration number 333-290918 and follows the initial S-1 filing on October 16, 2025.
VanEck said it no longer intends to proceed with distributing shares. The filing confirms the registration statement had not become effective, no securities had been or would be issued or sold under it, and no preliminary prospectus had been distributed.
Those details matter for market structure: there are no ETF holders who need to redeem and no fund assets that must be sold to meet withdrawals. The SEC filing requests consent to make the withdrawal effective as of October 14 or at the earliest practicable date afterward.
The proposed VanEck ETF would have held stETH, Lido’s liquid-staking token, rather than LDO, the protocol’s governance token. Its objective was to track stETH’s price after expenses while accruing staking rewards, using a MarketVector benchmark in a passive structure.
Ethereum investment products remain sensitive to institutional demand and ETF flows, but this abandoned proposal never added an active vehicle to that market. Recent Ethereum ETF flows and price dynamics provide broader context.
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What the VanEck Lido ETF Would Have Held?
Lido users deposit ETH through the protocol and receive stETH, which represents their underlying position and associated staking rewards. Its rebasing mechanism can increase the amount of stETH held as the underlying position earns rewards.
That structure differs from holding spot ETH: the proposed fund would have exposed investors to stETH and its market mechanics, not directly replicated a conventional Ether fund. The prospectus identified risks including validator penalties, smart-contract vulnerabilities, liquidity constraints, and changes in Ethereum’s market value.
An SEC staff statement in August 2025 addressed certain liquid-staking arrangements, distinguishing qualifying activities from arrangements involving managerial or entrepreneurial efforts. The guidance was conditional and did not automatically approve ETFs holding staking tokens.
Ethereum’s underlying network continues to evolve, including through testing tied to Ethereum’s gas limit, but network development alone does not resolve the regulatory or product risks in the prospectus.
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Lido’s Support for the Original Filing was Historical
The Lido Ecosystem Foundation welcomed VanEck’s application in October 2025, presenting it as a potential bridge between liquid staking and traditional investment markets. Kean Gilbert, then identified as the foundation’s head of institutional relations, supported the significance of institutional staking products.
In that October 2025 announcement, Lido reported that users had earned more than $2 billion in staking rewards since launch and placed the protocol’s total value locked near $40 billion. VanEck did not say whether it might return with another Lido or a staking-linked ETF.
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