WisdomTree Debuts Europe’s First Fully Staked Ethereum ETP Backed Entirely by Lido stETH

Product launch marks a milestone for regulated access to Ethereum’s staking economy 

TL;DR

• WisdomTree launched Europe’s first fully staked Ethereum ETP, holding 100% Lido stETH and debuting with roughly $50 million AUM.
• The structure removes all unstaked ETH buffers, tying performance directly to staking rewards and stETH market dynamics across liquidity venues.
• Lido’s scale, validator distribution, and collateral footprint anchor the product’s risk profile as institutional demand for yield-bearing Ethereum exposure grows.

WisdomTree rolled out a first-of-its-kind investment product on December 4, 2025 with the launch of the WisdomTree Physical Lido Staked Ether ETP (LIST), positioning it as Europe’s inaugural fully staked Ethereum exchange-traded vehicle built exclusively on Lido’s stETH. The product opened trading on Deutsche Börse Xetra, SIX Swiss Exchange, and Euronext Paris and Amsterdam with approximately $50 million in initial assets under management and a 0.50% annual fee. The structure removes any liquid ETH buffer and relies entirely on stETH as the underlying asset, binding LIST’s net asset value to the same forces shaping the crypto price index for Ethereum’s staking layer.

Market framing from WisdomTree and Lido centered on the size and systemic footprint of stETH within Ethereum’s ecosystem, where Lido accounts for roughly 25% of all staked ETH and manages about 8.5 million ETH across more than 650 distributed node operators. That validator distribution underpins the security assumptions institutions typically scrutinize when evaluating staking-linked exposure. Liquidity metrics cited in the launch materials highlighted about $100 million of stETH executable within 2% of redemption value based on solver quotes from decentralized trade aggregators, along with roughly $10 billion of stETH active as collateral across decentralized finance markets. Those figures were presented as evidence that the product could function without a liquidity buffer while still supporting creations and redemptions on regulated exchanges, particularly as secondary markets track stETH’s coin market cap dynamics and redemption parity.

Statements from the organizations involved attempted to anchor LIST’s design in the broader evolution of Ethereum as a yield-bearing asset. Kean Gilbert of the Lido Ecosystem Foundation described stETH as the primary route institutions already use to access staking rewards, calling the ETP a natural progression that places familiar financial infrastructure on top of Ethereum’s on-chain mechanics. WisdomTree’s digital asset research lead, Dovile Silenskyte, framed the product as a bridge between traditional allocators and Ethereum’s transition into a network where staking returns form part of its functional economic baseline. A separate commentary from Oleg Giberstein highlighted the year-long development cycle behind LIST, emphasizing the operational, compliance, custodial, and risk-control work required to deliver an ETP backed solely by stETH rather than synthetic staking exposure or partial allocations.

The launch reinforces a shift in institutional crypto strategy, where yield-bearing assets tied directly to protocol-level activity compete for attention alongside market-value instruments monitored through each crypto price index. LIST’s structure means performance depends not only on Ethereum’s broader crypto price movements but also on the pricing dynamics of stETH itself, including temporary divergences between stETH and ETH. That introduces risks that differ from standard spot ETH ETPs, particularly because smart-contract dependencies, liquidity depth during market stress, and broader DeFi collateral conditions can influence stETH’s market behavior.

The product arrives at a moment when institutions are probing ways to integrate staking revenues into traditional portfolios while avoiding direct validator operations or key management. LIST effectively shifts operational complexity to the issuer while preserving the mechanics of staking yield, offering a format that aligns with how traditional investors measure exposure through regulated exchanges. Whether LIST becomes a template for future staking-linked ETPs will depend on both market reception and how stETH maintains liquidity and stability through changing macro environments, especially as fluctuations in Ethereum’s coin market cap and broader crypto price trends ripple through derivative products built on yield-bearing tokens.

This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.