Author: Nancy, PANews

The crypto spot ETF has finally entered the staking era. Recently, Grayscale announced significant progress by launching the first spot crypto ETF in the U.S. that supports staking, opening the on-chain staking participation channel ahead of others through policy and compliance pathways, although its capital inflow performance has been relatively tepid. Meanwhile, with the new general listing standards for ETPs coming into effect, competition among spot crypto ETFs is accelerating.

Grayscale Takes the Lead in Staking, Market Reaction Below Expectations

On October 6, Grayscale announced that its Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) and Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH) officially became the first spot crypto asset ETFs in the U.S. to support staking functionality.

At the same time, Grayscale's Solana Trust (GSOL) has also launched staking functionality, providing investors with one of the exclusive channels to participate in SOL staking through traditional brokerage accounts. With the advancement of regulatory approvals, GSOL is expected to become one of the first spot Solana ETPs to support staking functionality. Grayscale has indicated plans to expand staking to more products in the future.

According to official disclosures, Grayscale will conduct passive staking through institutional-grade custodians (such as Coinbase and Figment) and a diversified validator network to ensure the security of the underlying blockchain protocol while supporting the network's long-term resilience. In terms of the distribution of staking rewards, ETHE shareholders can receive up to 77% of the total staking rewards, with the remaining 23% going to the issuer, custodian, and staking service providers; while the investor reward ratio for the ETH product is even higher, reaching 94%, with the three parties only taking a 6% share.

Since the staking functionality was launched, on-chain data shows that Grayscale has staked over 1.16 million ETH. Among them, 49.46% of the ETH held by ETHE has been staked, and the staking ratio in ETH is 47.79%. According to ValidatorQueue data, the current number of ETH queued for staking is about 1.36 million, with Grayscale's staked ETH accounting for 85.4%.

The introduction of Grayscale's staking functionality is seen as filling the gap in staking rewards for Ethereum spot ETF products, providing institutional investors with a new passive income channel, which may attract more capital inflow. However, from the perspective of capital flow, the market reaction has been relatively muted. SoSoValue data shows that since October 6, ETHE has seen a net outflow of $1.95 million, while ETH has seen a net inflow of about $24.17 million; in contrast, BlackRock's ETHA has attracted over $670 million during the same period.

Leveraging Policy and Compliance Shortcuts to Get Ahead, Government Shutdown May Delay Other ETF Approval Processes

Before Grayscale officially launched the Ethereum ETF staking functionality, several issuers, including BlackRock and Franklin Templeton, had attempted to submit proposals to add staking functionality but were repeatedly met with delays from the U.S. SEC. Grayscale's ability to take the lead is attributed to its clever use of structural differences in the U.S. regulatory framework and recent policy relaxations, allowing it to bypass the lengthy traditional approval process.

Grayscale's ETHE and ETH are registered ETFs under the Securities Act of 1933, rather than funds governed by the Investment Company Act of 1940. Unlike the latter, which requires strict operational approvals, the former only needs SEC review of disclosure documents. This means that ETFs can flexibly adjust functionalities, such as adding staking, without needing additional SEC green lights, even without directly holding most of the spot assets (e.g., through a trust structure). In contrast, issuers like BlackRock and Fidelity, governed by the Investment Company Act of 1940, must undergo complete approval to add staking mechanisms, leading to multiple SEC delays.

Last month, Grayscale proposed three amendments to the trust agreement to enable its Ethereum spot ETF products to stake and receive corresponding staking rewards, including authorizing the trust to stake Ethereum, allowing the sponsor to charge additional staking fees, and granting the sponsor the authority to modify the trust agreement under specific conditions. All three proposals were passed with high votes, with the staking authorization proposal receiving 99.75% support from shareholders.

More critically, the SEC approved the general listing standards for crypto ETPs in September this year, allowing exchanges (such as NYSE Arca) to autonomously approve listings and new functionality adjustments for new products that meet basic conditions (liquidity, transparency, and compliance disclosure requirements) without needing to submit individual 19b-4 rule change applications. After the new rules took effect, Grayscale also withdrew its staking functionality amendment application on September 29 and successfully obtained SEC approval, allowing the Ethereum ETF to operate under the NYSE Arca general listing framework Rule 8.201-E, achieving listing and trading without separate approval.

By leveraging the flexibility of policy and compliance pathways, Grayscale successfully positioned itself as the first spot crypto ETF in the market to support staking. As the SEC gradually relaxes its regulatory policies on crypto asset ETFs, more issuers are accelerating the launch or follow-up of products that support staking functionality, sparking a new round of competition. For instance, 21Shares recently announced the introduction of staking for its Ethereum ETF and offered a one-year waiver on sponsorship fees; Bitwise set the Solana staking ETF fee rate at 0.20%, lower than market expectations.

However, the U.S. government has entered a shutdown state, and the SEC currently retains only a minimal number of emergency personnel, which means that the approval work for crypto ETFs will be somewhat limited, potentially affecting the rollout pace of staking functionalities for other ETFs in the short term.

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