DATs Need Liquid Staking to Outperform ETH Staking ETFs: Lido Exec
Ether treasury companies may need to use liquid staking and other active dividend strategies if they want to offer investors more than the stock rewards available through previously listed Ether products, Ken Gilbert, Lido's head of institutional relations, told Cointelegraph at ETHCC 2026.
It allows holders of Ether (ETH) to load a liquid amount of tokens while receiving a transferable token that can be deployed elsewhere in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Gilbert said strategies such as posting ETH as collateral and borrowing against it could help treasury companies generate higher returns than their equivalent stock products.
US-listed ETH products now include the REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF, which 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.
Vendor specifications show varying economies of scale across ether products, making direct product comparisons difficult. Greyscale's ETHE page showed 2.26% net savings rewards since April 6, while Greyscale's ETH page showed 2.56% since April 2. Native ETH shares were yielding about 2.72% annually, according to Staking Rewards.
RELATED: Bitmine Paper Loss Close to $8.8B as Ether Slump Tests Cyclical Thesis
Still, Jimmy Shue, co-founder and chief executive officer of digital product platform Axis, said Ether's treasury companies don't need to beat Ether's holdings to the main product because they're separate investment vehicles.
“A captive ETH ETF is a passive vehicle. DAT trading at a meaningful MNAV premium is promising something that a passive ETF structurally cannot deliver, which is to deploy active and dynamic spot stocks on emerging opportunities.”
“The MNAV premium reflects investor confidence in the management's ability to put the treasury to work,” Shue said, adding that underlying trading is a major source of profit for treasury firms.
Official records show a fluid adoption
Public disclosures show many Ether treasuries using strategies related to staking or liquidation, although the level of detail varies by company.
Sharplink Gaming, the second largest corporate Ether holder, has won 14,516 ETH (about $30.8 million) in prizes as of March. According to a March 1 filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, it earned 33 percent of those awards in liquid stocks and 66 percent in domestic stocks.
Sharplink It reported a net loss of $734 million in 2025, largely due to the massive crypto market crash in the second half of the year.
BTCS Inc., the 10th-largest Ether treasury company by revenue, also included a portion of its Ether holdings through liquid staking protocol Rocket Pool. Of its total holdings of 29,122 ETH, the company held 4,160 ETH ($8.8 million) in liquid shares through Rocket Pool nodes, according to a July 2025 SEC filing.
Cointelegraph approached BitMine, SharpLink and The Ether Machine to comment on the role of liquidity in their strategies.
Magazine: Sharplink exec shocked by level of BTC and ETH ETF hoarding – Joseph Chalom
