Investment firm VanEck has officially submitted a request to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for approval to launch a new exchange-traded fund — the VanEck Lido Staked ETH ETF. This fund will provide institutional investors with access to stETH, a token that serves as a liquid equivalent of Ethereum staked through the Lido protocol.
This is reported by Finway
Fund Features and Benefits for Investors
The new ETF from VanEck will hold stETH and leverage the advantages of smart contracts that have already proven themselves in the market. Additionally, the fund will benefit from high liquidity in the secondary market and seamless integration with custodians and cryptocurrency exchanges. Since the platform’s inception, Lido users have earned over $2 billion in rewards, and the total amount of assets locked in the protocol has exceeded $40 billion.
Development of the Liquid Staking Market
Kian Gilbert, Head of Institutional Relations at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation, emphasized the significance of such an ETF for the industry, noting that it demonstrates recognition of liquid staking as a key element in the Ethereum ecosystem. According to him, the Lido platform successfully combines the principles of decentralization with high institutional standards.
“The emergence of an ETF based on stETH signifies recognition of liquid staking as a key component of the Ethereum ecosystem. Lido merges decentralization with institutional standards,” said Kian Gilbert.
The press release highlights that the SEC has previously stated that transactions involving liquid staking tokens — including issuance, redemption, and trading — are not subject to securities regulation if conducted within defined technical and administrative procedures.
If approved, the VanEck Lido Staked ETH ETF will become the first exchange-traded fund in the U.S. to track the performance of the stETH token.