VanEck Pulls the Plug on Lido stETH ETF, Ending Year's Wait for a Fund That Never Was 🫗

VanEck has formally withdrawn its registration for a proposed Lido staked Ether exchange-traded fund, filing paperwork with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on October 14, 2026 to scrap the product. The asset manager's digital-assets unit submitted Form RW under Rule 477 of the Securities Act of 1933, stating it "does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution" of the trust's shares. The filing makes the withdrawal official; the registration never became effective and no securities were issued or sold.

The VanEck Lido stETH ETF traces back to October 16, 2025, when VanEck Digital Assets filed the fund's initial S-1 registration statement. The proposed trust was structured as a Delaware statutory trust and was designed to hold Lido staked Ether (stETH), with the prospectus indicating the fund would accrue staking rewards through ownership of the liquid staking token. At the time of the filing, it would have been the first U.S. ETF tied directly to stETH.

With the withdrawal, the only proposed regulated U.S. channel for direct stETH exposure disappears as native staking spreads across brokerages and existing funds. VanEck has not explained the reasoning behind the decision and has not indicated whether it will pursue a replacement product. Cointelegraph and CoinGape both reported reaching out to VanEck Digital Assets for comment. The firm is also separately in the news for criticizing Metaplanet over executive dilution despite compensation cuts.