BlackRock moves to add staked Ethereum ETF with fresh SEC filing

The world's largest asset manager is seeking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's sign-off for a staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund.

BlackRock filed a registration statement with the SEC on Friday for the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF. This comes a few weeks after the firm filed a name registration with the state of Delaware for that ETF, signalling that an SEC filing could be incoming. 

 "The Trust seeks to reflect generally the performance of the price of ether and rewards from staking a portion of the Trust’s ether, to the extent the Sponsor in its sole discretion determines that the Trust may do so without incurring undue legal or regulatory risk, including, without limitation, any risk to the Trust’s qualification as a grantor trust for U.S. federal income tax purposes," BlackRock said in the filing.

Last year, BlackRock debuted its existing Ethereum ETF on Nasdaq. In July, Nasdaq submitted an updated 19b-4 filing to add staking to that ETF. Other issuers have added staking to their crypto ETFs, including Grayscale's Ethereum ETF and another from Fidelity that includes staking for its SOL ETF. 

Over the past few months, firms have launched several different types of crypto ETFs, including ones tracking DOGE and XRP, in the wake of a friendlier presidential administration toward crypto this past year.

BlackRock's spot ether fund, the iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ticker ETHA), is the largest of its kind with about $17 billion in AUM.

Expand Chart