VanEck Drops Plan for Lido Staked Ether ETF After a Year

VanEck has decided to walk away from its proposed Lido staked Ether exchange traded fund, shelving a product that would have given investors a way to hold the liquid staking token through a traditional fund.

VanEck Lido Staked Ether ETF Withdrawal Filing

In a regulatory filing submitted on Wednesday, VanEck Digital Assets stated that it does not intend to go ahead with the planned distribution of the trust’s shares. The company gave no reason for the change of course, and it did not say whether it plans to launch a different product to replace this one. Requests for comment sent to the firm had not been answered at the time of publication.

Timeline of the stETH ETF Application

The asset manager first filed the registration statement for the fund on Oct. 16, 2025, almost exactly one year before the decision to pull back. That filing came during a busy stretch when several crypto ETF applications were submitted in the same week.

What the Fund Was Designed to Do

The trust would have held Lido staked Ether, known as stETH, and was expected to accrue certain staking rewards through its ownership of that token. For investors, the appeal was simple: exposure to Ether staking returns without having to handle the token or the staking process directly.