SharpLink Says It Has Deployed $400 Million Across Ether.fi and Lido
SharpLink puts $200 million each into ether.fi and Lido
SharpLink, an Ethereum treasury company, said on Oct. 19 that it had deployed $200 million with ether.fi and $200 million with Lido, for a total of $400 million. Anchorage provided custody for both allocations.
In a statement on X, the company described the two allocations as its "first major onchain deployment deals" and said the investments let its team "put ETH to work everyday." An onchain deployment means placing crypto assets into blockchain-based services rather than leaving them idle.
Key numbers and dates
- Date of the announcement: Oct. 19, 2026.
- Amount per protocol: $200 million, for a combined $400 million.
- Custodian named for both allocations: Anchorage.
- SharpLink reported holding 888,938 ETH as of Aug. 3, 2026, in its second-quarter update.
The August Lido plan matches the latest figure
SharpLink had already announced in August 2026 that it planned to stake $200 million through Lido and receive wrapped staked ETH, known as wstETH, held by Anchorage Digital. WstETH is a token that represents staked ETH plus its staking rewards, and it can still be used in other DeFi applications.
According to The Defiant, the latest Lido figure matches that earlier planned allocation. It is not described as an additional $200 million investment.
What Anchorage said about the ether.fi strategy
The ether.fi relationship came earlier. In October 2025, Anchorage said SharpLink planned to deploy $200 million in ETH on Linea, an Ethereum Layer 2 network, in phases. A Layer 2 network is a separate system built on top of Ethereum to handle activity more cheaply or quickly.
Anchorage identified weETH, a liquid restaking token intended for deployment on Linea, as the instrument for that strategy, and confirmed its own role in providing custody infrastructure. Restaking refers to putting already-staked assets to work again in additional protocols.
How the two protocols compare in size
DefiLlama listed Lido's total value locked at about $23.18 billion on Oct. 19, compared with approximately $4.61 billion for ether.fi Stake. These are protocol-wide figures, not measures of SharpLink's own positions.
What is confirmed and what is not
Confirmed by the sources: SharpLink announced the $400 million in allocations on Oct. 19; it named ether.fi and Lido; Anchorage provided custody; and SharpLink previously announced an August plan for a $200 million Lido allocation and an October 2025 plan for $200 million in ETH on Linea.
Still unclear: neither source states how much of SharpLink's total ETH holdings the $400 million represents, how the positions are performing, or any time frame beyond what has already been announced.
Why shareholders are watching the strategy
The approach adds ways for the company to seek returns on the ETH it holds. Lido's wstETH reflects staking rewards while remaining usable in DeFi, and the ether.fi strategy involves weETH with additional yield opportunities through EigenLayer. Deploying tokens in other DeFi applications is a separate step from simply holding them.
Sources
Newisty Editorial Team covers technology, cryptocurrency, digital products, online platforms, developer tools and the wider digital economy. Our content is researched from official sources, company announcements, public documentation, market data and other primary or reputable sources. Articles are reviewed and edited before publication for clarity, accuracy and useful context.