VanEck withdraws SEC registration for its Lido Staked Ethereum ETF

VanEck has pulled the plug on its Lido Staked Ethereum ETF. The asset manager withdrew its registration with the SEC and confirmed that no shares have been issued and none will be. The proposal was a first. VanEck was the first firm to file for a US ETF tied to Lido’s liquid staking token, stETH. What VanEck was trying to build The fund’s timeline was short. VanEck registered the product as a Delaware statutory trust around October 2, 2025. An S-1 registration statement followed. It reached the SEC sometime between October 16 and October 20, 2025. The ETF would hold stETH, giving investors exposure to Ethereum staking rewards without touching the blockchain themselves. The design aimed to offer daily liquidity and on-chain transparency, packaged in a format institutional investors already understand. The ETF would have let a pension fund or wealth manager collect staking yield through a brokerage account. No wallets, no validators, no explaining private keys to the compliance department. The structure was also pitched as tax-efficient. The numbers behind the bet At the time of the filing, Lido’s total value locked was reported to be in the range of $38–40 billion. Lido also reporte...