VanEck Pulls Plug on Lido Staked ETH ETF After Yearlong Wait

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.