Ether Treasuries Say 'LFG' to Liquid Staking as ETF Competition Heats Up

Ether treasury companies might need to stop sleeping on liquid staking and actually put their yield-generating skills to work if they want to give investors something more than the staking rewards already handed out by listed Ether products, Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido, told Cointelegraph at ETHCC 2026. Because apparently, sitting on your hands and collecting 2.7% while the market bleeds isn't the flex it used to be.

Liquid staking lets ETH holders stake their tokens while receiving a transferable token that can still be deployed elsewhere in DeFi. Gilbert said strategies such as posting ETH as collateral and borrowing against it could help treasury companies generate higher returns than passive staking products. It's basically having your cake, eating it too, and then using the plate as collateral for more cake. DeFi magic, baby.

US-listed staked ETH products now include the REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF, launched in September 2025, Grayscale's Ethereum Staking ETF and Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, and BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF, introduced on March 12. The ETF train keeps chugging along, and everyone's trying to get a seat before the music stops.

Issuer disclosures show different staking economics across Ether products, making direct yield comparisons difficult. Grayscale's ETHE page showed 2.26% net staking rewards as of April 6, while Grayscale's ETH page showed 2.56% as of April 2. Native ETH staking was yielding about 2.72% annually, according to Staking Rewards. For those keeping score at home, that's roughly the difference between getting lunch money stolen and having your lunch money stolen with a smile.

Still, Jimmy Xue, co-founder and chief operating officer of quantitative yield platform Axis, said Ether treasury companies do not necessarily need to beat staked Ether products on headline yield because they are different investment vehicles.

"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," Xue said. "The mNAV premium investors pay reflects confidence in management's ability to put that treasury to work." Translation: passive ETFs are for people who just want to HODL and pretend they're doing something, while DATs are for the actual degens who want their treasury managers to be in the group chat making moves.

Basis trading is a major yield source for treasury companies. It's the financial equivalent of being the house in a casino - statistically hard to lose if you know what you're doing.

Public disclosures show several Ether treasury firms using staking or liquid-staking-related strategies, though the level of detail varies by company. Some are posting their yields like flexing at the gym, others are more... discreet.

Sharplink Gaming, the second-largest corporate Ether holder, has generated 14,516 ETH (around $30.8 million) in staking rewards as of March. It derived 33% of these rewards from liquid staking and 66% from native staking, according to a March 1 filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Sharplink reported a $734 million net loss for 2025, largely driven by the sharp crypto market downturn in the second half of the year. That's what we call getting absolutely decimated in the market while still diligently collecting your staking rewards like a determined hamster running on a wheel.

BTCS Inc., the 10th-largest Ether treasury company by returns, has also staked a part of its Ether holdings through the liquid staking protocol Rocket Pool. Out of its total 29,122 ETH holdings, the company has liquid staked 4,160 ETH ($8.8 million) through Rocket Pool nodes, according to a July 2025 SEC filing. Small but hungry - the classic underdog story of a treasury company trying to make it big in the yield game.