Digital asset manager Grayscale made the first distribution of Ethereum staking rewards to shareholders of a U.S. spot crypto exchange-traded product on Monday, effectively extending regulated crypto products beyond price tracking to include protocol-level income under the Securities Act of 1933.

The distribution covers staking rewards earned from October 6, 2025, through year-end, with ETHE shareholders receiving $0.083178 per share, payable on Tuesday, based on holdings as of January 5.

Grayscale’s move could reshape how proof-of-stake assets are packaged for public investors, after staking rewards were previously excluded from U.S. spot crypto ETFs amid regulatory uncertainty, despite being a core source of economic return for networks such as Ethereum.



Distributing staking rewards for shareholders could benefit not just Grayscale, but also “the entire Ethereum community and ETPs at large,” CEO Peter Mintzberg said in a statement.

This follows developments from October last year, when Grayscale became the first U.S. issuer to enable staking on its Ethereum exchange-traded products, allowing ETHE and its counterpart to begin earning network rewards rather than simply tracking the price.

A month later, the U.S. Treasury and IRS guidance provided greater clarity around the tax treatment and regulatory handling of staking rewards for crypto exchange-traded products to stake assets like Ethereum and Solana and pass those rewards, creating “a clear path to stake digital assets and share staking rewards with their retail investors,” Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said at the time.

Until then, U.S. spot crypto exchange-traded products had been structured to track price movements, avoiding direct interaction with network functions such as staking.

That design choice reflects how issuers have structured U.S. spot crypto products under existing securities rules.

The Securities Act of 1933 governs how securities are offered and sold to the public, emphasizing disclosure so investors understand a product’s structure and risks, but it does not impose ongoing rules on how a fund must be managed.

By distributing staking rewards, Grayscale is testing whether protocol-level income can be delivered within a product complying with the 33 Act, without triggering the additional obligations and constraints that apply to registered investment companies.

Decrypt has reached out to Grayscale for comment.

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