VanEck drops its Lido staked Ether ETF a year after filing; ether near $2,417

Asset manager VanEck has shelved its planned Lido staked Ether ETF, Cointelegraph reported. In a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday, VanEck Digital Assets said it "does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution" of the trust's shares.

What the fund was meant to do

VanEck first filed the fund's S-1 registration statement on 16 October 2025, almost exactly a year ago. The ETF would have held Lido staked Ether (stETH), the token people receive when they stake ether through the Lido protocol, and would have earned staking rewards by holding it. For investors, that meant ether price exposure plus a yield, inside an ordinary brokerage account.

VanEck did not explain the decision or say whether it plans a replacement product. Cointelegraph said it had asked the company for comment.

Ether price today

Ether was at $2,417.47 at 6:40am PKT on our ether price page, roughly Rs 6.70 lakh a coin at the interbank rate of Rs 276.95. Crypto markets were soft overnight after hotter-than-expected US inflation: bitcoin slipped below $82,000, as we reported in our Asia tech sell-off story. Bitcoin's own history is on the bitcoin price page.

What it means for investors in Pakistan

Spot crypto ETFs trade on US exchanges, and buying them from Pakistan means an international brokerage account funded in dollars. Staking products also carry risks beyond the price of ether: smart-contract bugs in the staking protocol and the chance that a liquid staking token trades below the ether it represents. The withdrawal of one fund does not change those risks, but it does mean one fewer regulated route to staking yield.

Before moving money abroad for any investment, check the dollar cost with our USD to PKR converter.