Fidelity is seeking to turn its spot ethereum fund from a passive price tracker into an income-producing crypto product.

The asset manager filed a pre-effective amendment with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Aug. 11 that adds staking to the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH). The filing would change the fund’s objective to track ether’s price while also capturing staking rewards.

Fidelity said the added income means FETH is expected to outperform its ether reference rate before fees and other expenses. The amendment remains preliminary and must become effective before the changes can take effect.

Under normal conditions, FETH will look to stake up to 100% of its ETH, although Fidelity would retain some unstaked assets when needed for redemptions, expenses or liquidity management.

Anchorage Digital, Bitgo and Fidelity Digital Assets would custody the fund’s ether and facilitate staking with outside node operators. The staking program carries a 15% fee shared among Fidelity, custodians and node operators. FETH would retain the other 85% before fund expenses and other obligations are deducted.

Staking also introduces risks absent from a purely spot product. ETH can become temporarily unavailable while validators enter or exit the network, while operational failures can expose assets to slashing penalties.

Rather than simply reinvesting all rewards, Fidelity plans to make quarterly cash distributions under normal circumstances.

Staking rewards would accumulate in ETH before Fidelity sells the amount available for distribution into dollars and pays shareholders. The filing cautions that distributions are not guaranteed and may be changed, suspended, or terminated.

Fidelity also expects staking rewards to count as taxable income for shareholders under current federal guidance.

The structure follows an IRS safe harbor issued in November 2025 that established conditions under which qualifying crypto investment trusts can stake assets without losing their grantor-trust tax status. Grayscale has already distributed ethereum staking rewards, while Blackrock launched its own staking-enabled ether product earlier this year.

For ethereum ETFs, the competition is shifting from simply offering ETH exposure to capturing the yield native to the network. Fidelity’s filing signals that staking is becoming part of the product, not an optional feature left outside the fund.

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