BlackRock registered the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust in Delaware on November 19, paving the way for the company’s first Ethereum ETF in the US.
The state-level trust registration does not constitute a formal application of the Securities Act of 1933. Still, it positions BlackRock to launch a yield-bearing ETH product once the SEC allows staking in ETF wrappers.
The filing follows a separate Nasdaq proposal earlier this year that would convert BlackRock’s existing iShares Ethereum Trust ETF to stake some of its ETH through Coinbase Custody if regulators approve.
BlackRock is now pursuing two parallel tracks: adding staking to its live spot ETH ETF and creating a dedicated Ethereum trust from scratch.
The first wave of US spot Ethereum ETFs launched in 2024 without staking, after the SEC required issuers to remove the feature.
These funds charge management fees of 0.15% to 0.25%, VanEck’s Ethereum ETF charges 0.20%, while Fidelity’s ETF and iShares ETHA both charge 0.25%. They hold ETH in institutional custody and track its price without passing on-chain returns to investors.
On-chain, about 30% of Ethereum’s circulating supply has been staked, and network-level rewards have risen just under 3% year-over-year in recent weeks, according to benchmark indices such as Compass’s STYETH and MarketVector’s STKR.
Investors who buy a spot ETH ETF today will lose that 3% yield if the token trades flat.
BlackRock enters a market where three different staking structures have emerged. The REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF trades under the ticker ESK as an actively managed 1940 Act fund that invests at least 50% of its investments and charges an all-in fee of 1.28%.
VanEck has filed a Lido Staked Ethereum ETF, structured as a grantor holding sETH instead of native ETH.
Grayscale revealed that its flagship Ethereum Trust can keep up to 23% of stake rewards as additional compensation, while the Ethereum Mini Trust ETF can keep up to 6% of stake rewards.
Prices, access and custody as competitive levers
BlackRock’s existing 0.25% fee on ETHA provides a baseline. A dedicated ETH trust gives BlackRock three options: keep the 0.25% sponsorship fee and pass on virtually all staking proceeds to investors, add an explicit cut to staking rewards as a second layer of compensation, or implement temporary fee waivers to capture market share before rates normalize.
A staked ETH ETF solves a distribution problem for institutions, advisors and retirement platforms that do not have access to DeFi protocols or the operational infrastructure to deploy themselves.
A spot ETF that performs native staking converts on-chain returns into a total return line item compatible with 401(k) accounts and model portfolios.
Investors who buy an equity ETF can lock in roughly 2% to 3% annually after fees, even if the token price remains flat.
BlackRock appears to be using Coinbase Custody for both ether storage and staking, concentrating all operations within a single US-regulated counterparty.
The Nasdaq filing identifies Coinbase as both custodian and staking provider. REX-Osprey uses the US bank with third-party validators, while VanEck’s Lido fund relies on Lido smart contracts and a separate sETH custodian.
Regulators may prefer BlackRock’s single-counterparty model over structures that route staking through DeFi protocols.
The timing of the regulations is still uncertain
The SEC forced issuers to drop the stakes of the first ETH ETFs because specific stake programs could potentially be unregistered securities offerings.
BlackRock’s Delaware trust puts the company at the front of the line for when that stance softens, but it has no effective registration statement or approved stock exchange rule.
Supervisors are confronted with three open questions. The first is whether they will allow Indigenous interests in a 1933 commodity trust, or require it to be placed in 1940 Act structures.
The second is whether they will treat liquid staking tokens such as sETH as equivalent to holding underlying ETH. The third is how much staking fees they will tolerate before a product enters the actively managed return strategy space.
BlackRock’s filing opens three competitive fronts. In terms of pricing, company size will reduce margins, but the real battle centers on the percentage of wagering rewards that sponsors keep.
Upon access, a staked ETH ETF yields validator-level returns within brokerage accounts that will never touch DeFi.
In terms of custody, any ETF proposal concentrates stakes among a handful of custodians. As more ETH migrates to ETF shells, more of the network’s betting power will be held by institutional keys.
