VanEck Digital Assets filed a Form RW with the Securities and Exchange Commission on 14 October, asking for consent to withdraw the fund’s Form S-1, first filed on 16 October 2025. The withdrawal letter says no shares were issued or sold. VanEck, which CryptoWatchDesk last covered in the 9 October ETF Desk when its bitcoin fund HODL took in $2.3 million, gave no other reason.
The filing never got far enough to test demand. EDGAR lists only two documents for the trust: the original S-1 and this week’s withdrawal, with no amendment in between. The S-1 left the listing exchange and ticker blank. The product would have wrapped a large asset. Lido held about $22.9 billion in deposits on DefiLlama’s count on Thursday. But US spot ether ETFs have lost $825.1 million in October through 14 October on Farside’s table, as the ETF Desk on Wednesday’s flows showed.
The S-1 described a passive trust whose objective was “to reflect the performance of the price of stETH less the expenses of the Trust’s operations.” It would have valued its shares against a MarketVector benchmark built from stETH prices on what VanEck’s index affiliate considers the top five trading platforms. stETH is Lido’s liquid staking token. It represents deposited ether plus the staking rewards that accrue to it.
The withdrawal letter, signed by vice president Matthew A. Babinsky, says only that the sponsor “does not intend to proceed with the planned distribution of the Trust’s shares.” It confirms the registration was never declared effective and that no preliminary prospectus was distributed. There are no holders and no fund assets to unwind.
Staking exposure for US investors is still reaching the market by other routes, including brokerages. Interactive Brokers’ new ether staking service, run by zerohash, launched on Tuesday. For the plain-ETF structure, see how spot crypto ETFs work.
VanEck asked the SEC to make the withdrawal effective as of 14 October or as soon as practicable afterwards.
This article is for information only and is not investment advice.