On January 5, Grayscale began distributing the Ethereum
staking exchange-traded fund (ETF) in cash.
The distribution amounted to $0.083178 per share and related to rewards earned between October 6 and December 31, 2025.
The payout was executed by selling the staking returns and delivering the proceeds in cash, without reducing the fund’s Ethereum holdings.
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The fund is not registered under the Investment Company Act of 1940, so it does not carry the same level of regulatory safeguards as traditional ETFs. Investments in such products carry heightened risk.
Staking capability in the fund was enabled in October 2025. Following that update, both the main fund and its companion product received rebranding in early January 2026 to clarify their staking features.
Grayscale manages roughly $31 billion in assets under management, and this payout marked the first time on-chain staking returns flowed through to US investors in a structured product.
The payout represents a shift in how digital-asset investment products work, which blends Ethereum’s staking mechanism with traditional exchange-traded formats.
Several other major asset managers, including BlackRock and Fidelity, have filed proposals to incorporate staking into their spot Ethereum products, though none have yet distributed staking returns to investors.
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