$200 million in ether, once converted into wstETH, is still essentially usable collateral — tokens that can be pledged or traded. That's likely the deciding factor behind SharpLink's choice of Lido this time around. The Miami-based digital asset treasury company announced Thursday it will stake roughly 106,000 ETH through Lido, converting it into wstETH (wrapped staked ETH — a receipt token representing the staked principal plus accrued rewards), with custody handled by Anchorage Digital.
The 106,000 ETH represents about 12% of the 888,938 ETH SharpLink held as of August 3. This isn't a one-time position swap — it's an additional layer stacked on top of existing staking and restaking positions. SharpLink CEO Joseph Chalom framed the move in the press release as a way to "make ETH more productive while maintaining institutional-grade risk standards."
The reasoning behind choosing Lido over other protocols is spelled out plainly: wstETH is currently integrated across more than 100 protocols and used as active collateral in roughly $10 billion worth of positions. In other words, staking doesn't mean the assets get locked away — while the underlying ETH keeps accruing staking rewards, the wrapped token itself can still be used as collateral or traded directly, with no need to unstake first. Lido currently has around $16.5 billion in ETH staked through its protocol, making it the largest liquid staking protocol on Ethereum.
Vasiliy Shapovalov, Executive Director of the Lido Labs Foundation, put it more bluntly: "Being bullish on ETH means being bullish on Ethereum's leading applications." Kean Gilbert, Head of Institutional Relations at Lido Institutional, added the treasury-side perspective — companies want ETH that "works for them without sacrificing liquidity," and wstETH lets holders at SharpLink's scale stay staked while keeping the flexibility their deployment strategies require.
Earlier this year, SharpLink pushed its holdings past 888,000 ETH, worth roughly $1.68 billion, making it one of the largest corporate holders of ether globally — with staking strategy remaining central to its playbook all year. This Lido position adds to its existing staking and restaking mix rather than replacing it.
The source material does not specify the exact start date for this wstETH staking position or further operational details.
