Ether Treasuries Snoozing While ETFs Earn? Lido Drops the Liquid Staking Truth

Ether treasury companies are getting absolutely cooked by staked ETH ETFs, and if they want to stay in the game, it's time to actually try. That's according to Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido, who dropped some uncomfortable truths at ETHCC 2026. The vibe? Corporate treasuries sitting on mountains of ETH while earning diddly-squat is starting to look a bit... embarrassing.

Gilbert's pitch? Liquid staking lets ETH holders stake their tokens while getting a transferable receipt they can still throw around DeFi like it's a reloadable debit card. The man basically wants treasuries to become degens—posting ETH as collateral, borrowing against it, farming yield across protocols while their staked tokens keep earning. Revolutionary concept: actually using your assets instead of treating them like a digital mattress.

For those keeping score at home, US-listed staked ETH products now include the REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF (September 2025, for the early adopters), Grayscale's Ethereum Staking ETF and Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, and BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (March 12). BlackRock showing up to the staking party late but loud—classic institutional energy.

Now here's where it gets messy. Yield comparisons are basically a Choose Your Own Adventure where every choice is slightly wrong. Grayscale's ETHE showed 2.26% net staking rewards as of April 6, while Grayscale's ETH showed 2.56% as of April 2. Native ETH staking was yielding about 2.72% annually, per Staking Rewards. The spread is so tight you could lose it in gas fees.

Jimmy Xue, co-founder and COO of quantitative yield platform Axis, pointed out that treasury companies don't necessarily need to beat staked ETH products on headline yield since they're different vehicles entirely. His take: "A staked ETH ETF is a passive vehicle. A DAT trading at a meaningful mNAV premium is promising something a passive ETF structurally cannot deliver, which is active, dynamic deployment of spot inventory across opportunities as they arise." Translation: active management exists for a reason, and it's not just to pay people to click buttons.

Public filings show some treasuries are already awake at the wheel. Sharplink Gaming, the second-largest corporate Ether holder, has generated 14,516 ETH (around $30.8 million) in staking rewards as of March—33% from liquid staking and 66% from native staking. BTCS Inc., the 10th-largest Ether treasury, has liquid staked 4,160 ETH ($8.8 million) out of its total 29,122 ETH holdings through Rocket Pool nodes. Not exactly going all-in, but at least they're not just sleeping.

The message from Lido's side is clear: passive staking is so 2024. Time to put that ETH to work, or get left holding the bag while the ETFs eat your lunch.