BlackRock registered the iShares Staking Ethereum Trust in Delaware on November 19, paving the way for the company’s first staking Ethereum ETF in the United States.
State-level trust registration does not constitute formal application of the Securities Act of 1933. Still, BlackRock is in a position to launch higher-yielding ETH products if the SEC allows staking within ETF wrappers.
The filing follows another Nasdaq proposal earlier this year to modify BlackRock’s existing iShares Ethereum Trust ETF to stake a portion of ETH through Coinbase custody, if approved by regulators.
BlackRock is currently pursuing two parallel tracks: adding staking to the LiveSpot ETH ETF and creating a staking-only Ethereum trust from scratch.
The first wave of spot Ethereum ETFs in the US were launched in 2024 without staking after the SEC required issuers to remove this feature.
Management fees for these funds range from 0.15% to 0.25%, with VanEck’s Ethereum ETF at 0.20% and Fidelity’s ETF and iShares ETHA both at 0.25%. They store ETH institutionally and track prices without passing on-chain staking yields to investors.
On-chain, roughly 30% of Ethereum’s circulating supply is staked, and network-level rewards have trended at just under 3% annually in recent weeks, according to reference indices such as Compass’ STYETH and MarketVector’s STKR.
Investors who buy the Spot ETH ETF today will lose that 3% yield if the token trades sideways.
BlackRock enters a market where three different staking structures have emerged. REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF trades under the ticker ESK as an actively managed 1940 Act fund that stakes at least 50% of its holdings and carries an all-in fee of 1.28%.
VanEck has applied for a Lido Stake Ethereum ETF structured as a grantor trust that holds stETH rather than native ETH.
Grayscale revealed that its flagship Ethereum Trust can hold up to 23% of staking rewards as additional rewards, while the Ethereum Mini Trust ETF can hold up to 6% of staking rewards.
Pricing, access and storage as competitive weapons
BlackRock’s existing 0.25% fee on ETHA will be the baseline. A dedicated staking ETH trust gives BlackRock three options. One option is to maintain the 0.25% sponsor fee and pass nearly all staking yield to investors, add an explicit cut of staking rewards as a second fee tier, or deploy temporary fee waivers to gain market share before normalizing rates.
A staked ETH ETF solves the distribution problem for institutions, advisors, and retirement platforms that don’t have access to DeFi protocols or lack the operational infrastructure for self-staking.
Spot ETFs that perform native staking transform on-chain yield into a total return item that is compatible with 401(k) accounts and model portfolios.
Investors who buy staked ETFs could earn around 2% to 3% annually after fees, even if token prices are flat.
It appears that BlackRock plans to use Coinbase Custody for both Ether storage and staking, centralizing all operations within a single US-regulated counterparty.
The Nasdaq filing identifies Coinbase as both the custodian and staking provider. REX-Osprey uses US Bank with an external validator, while VanEck’s Lido fund relies on Lido’s smart contract and a separate stETH custodian.
Regulators may prefer BlackRock’s single-exchange model over a structure that routes staking through DeFi protocols.
The timing of regulations is still unclear
The SEC forced the issuer to strip staking from the original ETH ETF because certain staking programs could constitute an offering of unregistered securities.
BlackRock’s Delaware trust has placed the company at the front of the line in case its stance softens, but there is no valid registration statement or approved trading rules.
Regulators face three unresolved issues. The first is whether to allow native staking into a 1933 Act commodity trust or require it to be placed in a 1940 Act structure.
The second is whether to treat liquidity staking tokens like stETH as equivalent to the underlying ETH holdings. The third is how much fee extraction from staking is allowed before the product moves into the realm of actively managed yield strategies.
BlackRock’s application opens up three competitive fronts. In terms of pricing, the company’s size will likely compress profit margins, but the real issue will focus on what percentage of staking rewards sponsors keep.
Once accessed, staked ETH ETFs deliver validator-level yields within your brokerage account without ever touching DeFi.
When it comes to custody, all staking ETF proposals concentrate staking with a small number of custodians. As more ETH migrates to the ETF shell, more of the network’s staking power will be held by institutional keys.
