BlackRock registered the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust in Delaware on November 19, paving the way for the company’s first staked Ethereum ETF in the United States.
Registering a trust at the state level does not constitute a formal application of the Securities Act of 1933. Nonetheless, it allows BlackRock to launch a yield-bearing ETH product once the SEC allows staking in ETF wrappers.
The filing follows a separate proposal from Nasdaq earlier this year that would seek to upgrade BlackRock’s existing iShares Ethereum Trust ETF to stake a portion of its ETH through Coinbase Custody if regulators approve it.
BlackRock is now pursuing two parallel paths: adding staking to its live spot ETH ETF and creating a dedicated Ethereum trust from scratch.
The first wave of U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs launched in 2024 with no staking after the SEC asked 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 the ETH in institutional custody and track the price without any on-chain returns being passed to investors.
On-chain, approximately 30% of Ethereum’s circulating supply is staked, and network-level rewards have reached just under 3% annualized in recent weeks, according to benchmarks such as Compass’s STYETH and MarketVector’s STKR.
Investors who buy an ETH ETF for spot today lose that 3% yield if the token trades flat.
BlackRock is entering a market where three distinct staking structures have emerged. The REX-Osprey ETH+ Staking ETF trades under the symbol ESK as an actively managed fund under the 1940 Act that holds at least 50% of its holdings, charging an overall fee of 1.28%.
VanEck filed a Lido Staked Ethereum ETF structured as a licensor trust that holds stETH rather than native ETH.
Grayscale revealed that its flagship Ethereum Trust can retain up to 23% of staking rewards as additional compensation, while the Ethereum Mini Trust ETF can retain up to 6% of staking rewards.
Pricing, access and custody as competitive levers
BlackRock’s existing fee of 0.25% on ETHA provides a baseline. A dedicated staked ETH trust gives BlackRock three options: keep the 0.25% sponsor fee and pass almost all of the staking returns to investors, add an explicit reduction in staking rewards as a second fee tier, or deploy temporary fee waivers to capture market share before normalizing rates.
A staked ETH ETF solves a distribution problem for institutions, advisors, and retirement platforms that cannot access DeFi protocols or do not have the operational infrastructure to self-invest.
A spot ETF that performs native staking converts on-chain yield into a total return line item compatible with 401(k) accounts and model portfolios.
Investors who purchase a staked ETF can earn around 2-3% per year after fees, even if the price of the token remains stable.
BlackRock appears set to use Coinbase Custody for ether storage and staking, concentrating all operations within a single regulated counterparty in the United States.
The Nasdaq filing identifies Coinbase as both a custodian and staking provider. REX-Osprey uses the US bank with external validators, while VanEck’s Lido fund relies on Lido smart contracts and a separate stETH custodian.
Regulators may prefer BlackRock’s single counterparty model to structures that route staking through DeFi protocols.
The regulatory timetable is still uncertain
The SEC forced issuers to remove staking from early ETH ETFs because specific staking programs could constitute unregistered securities offerings.
BlackRock’s Delaware trust puts the company at the front of the line when that position relaxes, but it doesn’t have an effective registration statement or approved trading rule.
Regulators face three open questions. The first is whether they will allow indigenous interests in a 1933 Act commodity trust or require them to be placed in 1940 Act structures.
The second is whether they will treat liquid staking tokens like stETH as equivalent to holding underlying ETH. The third is how much staking mining fees they will tolerate before a product enters the territory of an actively managed yield strategy.
BlackRock’s filing opens three competitive fronts. When it comes to prizes, company size will squeeze margins, but the real competition centers on the percentage of staking rewards that sponsors keep.
Upon access, a staked ETH ETF brings validator-level returns into brokerage accounts that will never touch DeFi.
In terms of custody, each staked ETF proposal concentrates the stake on a handful of custodians. As more ETH migrates to ETF shells, more of the network’s staking power will be held by institutional keys.
