Sharplink Selects Lido for $200 Million ETH Staking Allocation
One of the largest corporate holders of ETH is putting wstETH on its balance sheet, custodied with Anchorage Digital.
Sharplink (Nasdaq: SBET), one of the world's largest corporate holders of Ether ("ETH") and prominent industry advocate of Ethereum adoption, is deploying $200 million of its ETH treasury to staking through the Lido protocol. Sharplink will receive wstETH in return, and the staked ETH will be held in custody with Anchorage Digital.
The allocation follows Anchorage Digital's integration of wstETH last month, which opened access to Lido liquid staking for institutions custodying with the first federally chartered crypto bank in the US. It continues Sharplink's push this year to make its ETH treasury more productive for shareholders.
"This is an exciting expansion in making our ETH even more productive, leveraging wstETH’s composability while maintaining institutional-grade risk standards. Adding a staking protocol of Lido's caliber deepens the diversification of our treasury strategy and gives us access to one of the most liquid and widely integrated assets in Ethereum DeFi. It reflects our commitment to working with the top Ethereum protocols.”
The Choice Facing ETH Treasuries
Public companies are moving from simply holding ETH to staking it, and over a third of all ETH is now staked. Staking natively means waiting out Ethereum's validator entry queue. With ETH staked via Lido, rewards accrue from day one, and the wstETH held can be redeemed using the Lido withdrawal process, sold, or posted as collateral.
"We're seeing a clear shift in how institutions hold Ethereum, and Sharplink's allocation is a strong example. Treasuries want their ETH working for them without losing liquidity, and Lido has become the standard for doing it at scale. With wstETH, a holder of this size can stake while keeping the flexibility its strategy demands."
stETH at Scale
Institutions need to know they can move a position at size, use it while it is staked, and that risks have been assessed independently. That scale is reflected in the roughly $16.5 billion of ETH staked via Lido. stETH is integrated across more than 100 protocols, with around $10 billion in active use as collateral. For longterm holders, this means wstETH can be used in DeFi while the underlying ETH continues earning staking rewards, putting committed capital to work without selling it.
"I'm excited to see Sharplink increasing the use of Ethereum native staking protocols and the DeFi ecosystem. Being bullish ETH is being bullish on major Ethereum-based applications."
Lido holds A+ ratings from the independent frameworks Staking Rewards and Credora, and Lido is Web3SOC certified by the security firm Cantina, following a review of its governance, financial resilience, security and compliance.
About Lido Institutional
Lido Institutional represents a dedicated group of contributors focused on advocating for the use of Lido’s open-source, liquid staking middleware by non-retail users. Lido's middleware provides a way to participate in the blockchain network validation process and get staking rewards for this activity. With a mission to democratize staking, Lido middleware lets users connect with node operators and stake their digital assets without the need to individually maintain hardware. Learn more at lido.fi/institutional.
About Sharplink, Inc.
Sharplink (NASDAQ: SBET) is a leading institutional-grade Ethereum treasury platform designed to give public market investors smarter, more productive exposure to ETH. Ethereum underpins the majority of global stablecoin, tokenized real-world assets and decentralized finance settlement. Sharplink was founded in 2019 and is headquartered in Miami, Florida. Learn more at sharplink.com.