Ether treasuries may need to utilize floating staking and other lively yield strategies if they want to offer investors something beyond the staking rewards already available through listed Ether products, Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at Lido, told Cointelegraph at ETHCC 2026.
With liquid staking, Ether (ETH) holders can stake their tokens while receiving a tradable token that can still be deployed elsewhere in decentralized finance (DeFi).
Gilbert said that strategies such as listing ETH as collateral and borrowing against it could support treasury companies generate higher returns than passively staking products.
US-listed ETH products currently include the REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF launched in September 2025, Grayscale’s ETF and Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, and BlackRock’s iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF launched on March 12.
Issuer disclosures show different economics of staking Ether products, making it arduous to directly compare returns. 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 rates yielded approximately 2.72% annually, According to for staking prizes.
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Still, Jimmy Xue, co-founder and chief operating officer of quantitative income platform Axis, said Ether treasury companies don’t necessarily beat staked Ether products in terms of nominal rate of return because they are different investment vehicles.
“The ETH Staked ETF is a passive vehicle. Trading DAT at a significant mNAV premium promises something that a passive ETF is structurally unable to deliver, namely active, dynamic deployment of spot inventories as opportunities arise.”
“The premium that investors pay for mNAV reflects confidence in management’s ability to put this treasury into operation,” Xue said, adding that underlying trading is a major source of profits for treasury companies.
Public reports indicate the adoption of liquid staking
Public disclosures show that several Ether treasury firms are pursuing staking or liquid staking strategies, although the level of detail varies by firm.
Sharplink Gaming, the second-largest corporate holder of Ether, generated 14,516 ETH (approximately $30.8 million) in staking rewards in March. According to a March 1 report, 33% of these rewards came from liquid staking and 66% from native staking. filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Sharplink reported a net loss of $734 million for 2025, mainly due to the edged downturn in the cryptocurrency market in the second half of the year.
BTCS Inc., the 10th-largest Ether treasury company by profits, also staked some of its Ether holdings via the Rocket Pool liquid staking protocol. According to the SEC as of July 2025, out of the total 29,122 ETH wallets, the company liquidally staked 4,160 ETH ($8.8 million) via Rocket Pool nodes. filing.
Cointelegraph reached out to BitMine, SharpLink and The Ether Machine for comment on the role of liquid staking in their strategies.
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