As Wall Street begins to experiment with income-generating crypto ETFs, BlackRock’s new Ethereum (ETH) exchange-traded fund got off to a strong start on Friday, with first-day trading volume exceeding $15 million.
iShares Staked Ethereum Trust, which trades under the ticker ETHB, launched with just over $100 million in assets and had trading volume of about $11 million by early afternoon, said Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart. By late trading, trading volume had climbed to approximately $15.5 million, indicating strong initial demand for the product.
Market watchers said the numbers were considered strong for an ETF launch.
“BlackRock launched the Staked Ether ETF with just over $100 million in assets and about $11.1 million in trading volume by early afternoon,” Seyffart said on X, calling it “a pretty good start for any ETF.”
The product marks a major evolution for cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds. Unlike traditional spot crypto ETFs that simply track the underlying asset, ETHB will generate revenue by staking Ethereum and distribute the majority of rewards to investors. Staking refers to locking tokens in a cryptocurrency network in exchange for rewards. This is very similar to investing in fixed income instruments such as bonds.
According to the prospectus, the fund will hold between 70% and 95% of its ether holdings at any given time. Approximately 82% of staking rewards will be paid out to investors via monthly distributions, similar to how income is distributed for dividend-paying ETFs.
The remaining 18% will be allocated to trusts, custodians and pledge service providers.
The fund charges a 0.25% sponsorship fee, but BlackRock is offering a temporary discount rate of 0.12% on the first $2.5 billion of assets to attract early investors.
ETHB is the latest addition to BlackRock’s growing lineup of digital asset ETFs. The company already operates the iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT), which launched in January 2024 and quickly became the dominant Bitcoin ETF, and the iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), which launched in July 2024.
Ethereum’s staking mechanism allows holders to lock up ETH to help secure the network in exchange for rewards, effectively creating crypto-native returns. By encapsulating proceeds in an ETF wrapper, companies like BlackRock are trying to make the structure accessible to traditional investors who cannot easily participate in on-chain transactions directly.
If staking ETFs gain traction, they could open the door to similar structures in other proof-of-stake networks — potentially transforming crypto ETFs from passive exposure instruments into income-generating financial instruments.