Lido and Stakely Launch Public and Institutional ETH Staking Vaults

Stakely launched two Ethereum staking products on Lido V3 on Sept. 9: a public vault open to individual users and configurable, non-custodial vaults for institutions. Both products use Lido’s stVaults infrastructure, with Stakely operating the validators.

According to the official Lido announcement, the public product combines $ETH staking with EarnETH, while dedicated institutional vaults let clients set parameters around custody, permissions, fees and liquidity. The launch expands the set of services built on stVaults rather than introducing a new Ethereum staking protocol.

The public vault combines staking and a DeFi strategy

Users deposit $ETH through a Stakely interface and receive an ERC-20 pool-share token representing their position in the vault. The deposited $ETH is staked through Stakely’s validator infrastructure. Lido says the DeFi Wrapper can then mint stETH against the staked assets and allocate it to EarnETH, its $ETH-focused DeFi strategy.

That structure is intended to keep a single user position while adding access to DeFi activity, but it also adds risks beyond plain staking. Lido’s announcement directs prospective users to separate risk disclosures and says audits and operational controls cannot eliminate protocol or market risk. It does not provide a guaranteed yield or publish performance results for the new public vault.

Institutional vaults keep assets segregated

Stakely’s second product is aimed at asset managers, treasuries, platforms, custodians and exchange-traded product issuers. Each institution can use a dedicated vault, select Stakely as node operator and retain its own custody model and operating controls. The configuration can cover fee terms, permissions, liquidity design and technical parameters.

The companies describe the setup as non-custodial because Stakely runs validators without becoming custodian of the institution’s $ETH. On-chain attribution links a position to a specific vault, operator and parameter set, which can support reporting and operational review. Stakely also remains responsible for validator monitoring and performance management under both product models.

The launch adds another Lido V3 staking option

Lido V3 introduced stVaults as modular infrastructure for customized Ethereum staking. BlockchainReporter covered the Lido V3 mainnet launch and its stVaults design, which separates vault configuration from the broader pooled staking route. Stakely’s products apply that architecture to both a public interface and individually configured institutional deployments.

The Sept. 9 release confirms product availability but does not disclose deposits, named institutional customers or adoption targets. Its immediate significance is therefore the addition of a validator provider and two delivery models to the Lido V3 ecosystem, not evidence that the products have already attracted substantial assets.