Sentiment towards Ethereum’s ether (ETH) has sunk to depressed levels recently, but the latest maneuver by President Donald Trump-related crypto platform could spur hopes of a turnaround.
World Liberty Financial (WLFI), the decentralized finance (DeFi) platform linked to the Trump family, this week deposited a total of 10,000 ether (ETH) worth $33 million to the liquid stake platform Lido Finance (LDO) to bet and earn rewards, blockchain showed data from Arkham Intelligence. Lido is the largest ether staking platform with $31 billion in assets on the platform.
The transactions came after World Liberty Finance acquired more than $110 million in crypto assets, including ETH, wrapped bitcoin (wBTC), Tron’s TRX, AAVE, LINK and Athena’s ENA, CoinDesk reported.
The maneuver raises hopes that regulators will soon allow stakes for spot ETH exchange-traded funds. SEC Commissioner Hester Pierce, who now heads the agency’s crypto task force, said last month in an interview with Coinage that she was open to considering a bet on ETFs. Former SEC Chairman Gary Gensler, known for his anti-crypto stance in the industry, stepped down on January 20 with Trump’s inauguration.
Pegging would increase the appeal of the investment products, allow investors to earn a steady stream of returns on their holdings and reduce product fees. U.S. spot ETH ETFs collectively hold $12 billion in assets, according to SoSoValue data.
The potential regulatory approval could also move the price of ETH and neighboring ecosystem tokens like Lido’s LDO. Ethereum’s future has been under scrutiny recently, amid falling prices relative to competitors, leadership conflicts and concerns over the project’s development plan. ETH recently fell to a 4-year low against bitcoin (BTC), ceding market share in trading activity to fast-growing blockchains like Solana.
“I will never trade ETH again after, but see how quickly sentiment changes when the staked ETH ETFs come through in the next few weeks,” said well-followed crypto trader Pentoshi.
“ETH will have a multi-week gigapump sometime in 2025, around betting ETF news… If [you’re] too long ETH, that’s when you dump and switch to better performing assets,” Alex Krüger, partner at Asgard Markets, said in an X post.
