Original Author: KarenZ, Foresight News
On March 12, 2026, a somewhat different crypto ETF was listed on Nasdaq: the Ethereum Trust ETF with staking yield functionality, "ETHB".
This is the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF launched by BlackRock, and it is the third crypto ETF from the world's largest asset manager.
ETHB recorded approximately $15.5 million in trading volume on its first day of listing at closing, and approximately $76 million on the second day (March 13). In terms of size, ETHB started with about $100 million and currently has a size of approximately $170 million.
It is worth mentioning that many reports have crowned BlackRock's ETHB with the title of "the first Ethereum staking ETF in the US". But the interesting part of the story is: this is not the first Ethereum staking ETF in the US, but it is indeed the most significant one.
First, Understand: What Exactly is ETHB?
To understand ETHB, one must first understand Ethereum's "staking" mechanism. After Ethereum completed "The Merge" in 2022, it switched to a Proof-of-Stake mechanism to maintain network security.
Simply put: lock ETH into the network to help validate transactions, and the system will give you rewards, equivalent to deposit interest—except the interest rate is dynamically determined by the network.
According to Ethereum Validator Queue data, the current annualized yield is 2.78%. This number may not seem outstanding, but for ETH that was already intended to be held long-term, this is real additional income. For institutional investors, missing out on staking rewards means a real opportunity cost in hard cash—especially when managing hundreds of millions of dollars in Ethereum exposure.
What ETHB does is: make this activity compliant and productized, allowing ordinary investors to gain ETH price exposure and enjoy this "interest" through ordinary securities accounts, without needing to research how to stake or how to select validator nodes themselves.
What is ETHB's Fee Structure?
Breaking down ETHB's fee layers, the first layer is the surface-level management fee, 0.25% annually, with a promotional discount (first 12 months or first $2.5 billion) of 0.12%. This is consistent with ETHA's 0.25%, but ETHA has no staking收益 to offset this cost.
This number seems reasonable, but the management fee is only the first layer of the fee structure.
The second is the staking share. Out of each staking reward, 82% is distributed to ETF holders, and the remaining 18% will be paid as a staking fee to the Trust Sponsor and Broker Execution Agent. Among them, the Trust Sponsor is iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC, a subsidiary of BlackRock, and the Broker Execution Agent is Coinbase Inc. After Coinbase receives this money, it is also responsible for paying downstream validator operators, namely Figment, Galaxy Digital, and Attestant.
ETHB's filing page shows that it will stake 70% to 95% of its held ETH through the custodian Coinbase Custody Trust Company. According to official website data as of March 12, ETHB had 41,164 ETH participating in staking, a staking ratio of 80%. However, after the size increased on the 13th, active staking has not yet been completed, and the current staking ratio is 56%.
Assuming you invest $100, with a staking ratio of 70%–95%, an annualized yield of 2.78%, generating rewards of $1.95 to $2.64.
- First deduction: staking fee 18%, you actually get 82% of the reward, about $1.60 to $2.17.
- Second deduction: surface management fee, charged on the total holding of $100, standard rate 0.25%, promotional rate 0.12%.
Final net yield:
- Under standard rate: $1.60 – $0.25 = $1.35 to $2.17 – $0.25 = $1.92, corresponding to an annualized 1.35%–1.92%
- Under promotional rate: $1.60 – $0.12 = $1.48 to $2.17 – $0.12 = $2.05, corresponding to an annualized 1.48%–2.05%
So the nominal 2.78% staking yield, after two layers of deductions, results in an actual annualized yield for investors ranging from about 1.35% to 2.05%, depending on the current staking ratio and whether it is within the promotional period.
This is not a cheap product, but it provides a compliant channel to obtain staking收益 without going through node operators or holding private keys. For institutions operating within a regulated framework, this premium is meaningful.
BlackRock's ETHB is Not the First, But It Took the Most Standard Path
When the Ethereum spot ETF was approved in 2024, there was a clear restriction in the SEC's approval: the funds must not stake their held ETH. The regulatory logic at the time was that staking might constitute a securities offering. Therefore, BlackRock's ETHA holders got pure ETH price exposure without additional staking收益.
This restriction loosened in 2025. In May 2025, the SEC's Corporation Finance division issued guidance clarifying that "staking activities for certain PoS blockchain protocols do not constitute securities transactions under federal securities laws," which essentially gave a legal green light to Ethereum staking ETFs. Regulatory policy was further relaxed afterwards.
Before ETHB, two institutions had already launched Ethereum staking ETFs, choosing paths drastically different from BlackRock's:
REX-Osprey ETH + Staking ETF (ESK) was the first Ethereum staking ETF product listed in the US, jointly launched by REX Shares and Osprey Funds on the Cboe BZX exchange on September 25, 2025.
Unlike IBIT, ETHA, ETHB, etc., which follow the "1933 Act" path (submitting an S-1 registration as a commodity trust or spot ETP, synchronized with the exchange submitting a 19b-4 rule change application, requiring dual approval for listing), ESK chose the framework of the Investment Company Act of 1940 ("1940 Act")—the常规 regulatory framework for traditional mutual funds and most stock and bond ETFs.
However, the "1940 Act" itself prohibits direct holding of crypto assets. REX-Osprey's solution was: establish a wholly-owned subsidiary in the Cayman Islands (REX-Osprey ETH + Staking Cayman Portfolio S.P.), have the subsidiary hold ETH and perform staking operations, and the main fund indirectly obtains Ethereum price exposure and staking收益 through the subsidiary. This structure cleverly circumvented the SEC's direct restrictions on commodity ETFs, achieving compliant implementation of the staking function.
Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE) took the path of "upgrading an old product". Its predecessor was the Grayscale Ethereum Trust established in 2017. It converted to an ETF in 2024 following the approval of the Ethereum spot ETF, listed on NYSE Arca, and is subject to the rules and regulations of the US Securities Act of 1933.
ETHE activated staking by: having NYSE Arca submit a revised 19b-4 rule application to the SEC, requesting permission for the already-listed Ethereum ETP to add staking functionality within the existing framework. Compared to going through the complete S-1 approval process for a全新 product, modifying the rules for an existing product is much faster. Grayscale thus activated staking about five months before BlackRock (in October 2025).
But this "patching" approach also has a cost: ETHE inherited the high fee rate set when it was a trust product, with an annual management fee as high as 2.50%, far exceeding ETHB, resulting in significantly higher long-term holding costs.
BlackRock's ETHB chose a third path:全新 compliant filing: In December 2025, BlackRock submitted a全新 S-1 registration document for ETHB to the SEC, synchronized with Nasdaq submitting a 19b-4 rule change application, following the complete全新 product approval process.最终, ETHB completed approval in about three months and was successfully listed in March 2026.
BlackRock did not choose ESK's "detour" model, nor did it adopt Grayscale's "old product upgrade," but instead chose the most compliant, most transparent, and most suitable path for institutional-level funds to enter. The direct advantage brought by this choice is the lowest fee—a 0.25% annual management fee (0.12% during the promotional period), significantly lower than ETHE and also better than ESK, making it one of its core competencies in attracting institutional investors.
ETHB was established with the Securities Act of 1933 as its core framework and enjoyed some simplified disclosure arrangements in the early stage as an Emerging Growth Company (EGC), but it is not subject to the Investment Company Act of 1940, operating on a completely different logical system than ESK.
Summary
The moment Ethereum switched from PoW to PoS, it became an asset that could "generate yield simply by holding." But for most participants in traditional finance, the operational barriers, custody risks, and compliance obstacles of directly staking ETH made this income path virtually inaccessible.
What ETHB does is package this on-chain behavior of staking into a container that Wall Street is already familiar with.
For ESK and ETHE, which entered the market earlier, this might be a moment worth being vigilant about.
