🔥 It’s official: BlackRock wants staked ETH

BlackRock has filed for an staked Ethereum exchange-traded fund, a product that would allow traditional investors to gain exposure to ETH while earning some yield on their position via staking through a regulated vehicle: something no US issuer has been able to offer so far.

The fund, known as the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust (ETHB), was teased in November after BlackRock quietly registered a new entity in Delaware.

That filing became official on Friday, when the company filed its S-1 with the SEC to start a review process. A second 19b-4 filing from Nasdaq is still necessary before the SEC’s approval clock starts.

That simple structure: no leverage, no derivatives

ETHB is purpose built as a simple product making best efforts to track the spot price of Ethereum (adjusted for fees) and receiving staking rewards on ETH deposits from approved validators per this SC according to the filing.

Key details:

• No leverage, derivatives, or lending

• Coinbase Custody as primary custodian

• Anchorage Digital as Substitute Custodian

• Shares to trade on Nasdaq under symbol ETHB

Only authorized participants will be able to mint/redeem shares, as is the case with spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs today.

A regulatory climate shift: A golden window

Under the previous SEC regime, staking-related ETF applications were denied.

The agency suggested, for example, that centralized services offering staking, such as those provided by Kraken or Coinbase: might be unregistered securities offerings.

Now with Paul Atkins leading a crypto-friendly SEC, issuers are resubmitting staking proposals at breakneck speed. VanEck etc are changing their Ethereum products; BlackRock decided to launch a new fund instead of adding staking onto ETHA.

ETHA remains distinct and suffered the week’s biggest losses

BlackRock’s current iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), which has a ~$11B position of ETH, will run separately from the new staked fund. ETHA also faced basically all of the $75M outflow from US ETH ETFs last week, which came after weeks of steady accumulation.

There was more resilience for Bitcoin ETFs, which had $54.7M in net inflows, mainly from Ark/21Shares and Fidelity.

ETH price is up 13% but still trading in a range

Ethereum is up ~13.7% over the last week:

• Resistance levels: $3,165–$3,550

• Support: $2,745–$2,917

• Key breakout level: $3,169

And, if Bitcoin taught us anything in 2025: Liquidity follows BlackRock.

Explain to a friend: How staking-enabled Ethereum ETFs work

1. The fund purchases and holds actual Ethereum (ETH) in a similar manner to a spot ETF. It then give this ETH to institutional validators (ie Coinbase Custody) who can stake them and earn dividends.

2. The staked rewards (which is typically a 2.5% –4% yield) do not get paid out as a taxable dividend. Rather, the funds are automatically re-invested in the fund itself, thus growing the incremental amount of ETH held by the ETF over time.

3. As the value of the underlying companies continues to grow over time, the NAV (Net Asset Value) of the ETF grows silently. That is to say, the traded price of the staked ETF will slowly outperform a non-staked spot ETH ETF by the sum of net yield.

4. Investors simply buy and sell shares on an exchange, with no technical overhead to worry about of staking (slashing risk, lockups or on chain withdrawal queues). The fund takes care of operational complexity.

A chart that shows 100% hit rate?

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