The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has delayed its decision regarding Grayscale's proposal to offer Ether staking services within its Ethereum Trust ETF and Ethereum Mini Trust ETF. This decision has been delayed until June 1, as the SEC waits for agency approval for the proposed staking services.
This delay follows the SEC’s recent approval of options trading for multiple spot Ether ETFs on April 9. BlackRock, Bitwise and Grayscale’s ETFs were included in the first batch of approvals that were authorized to provide derivatives’ features. Just because these features win an approval stamp doesn’t mean that staking’s time to shine has come, as Grayscale is currently discovering.
Grayscale’s plans to launch its staking services as of February have been delayed. On February 14, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) filed a proposed rule change to back Grayscale’s request. This would open up the opportunity for investors in Grayscale’s forthcoming Ether ETFs to stake their holdings and perhaps earn some additional yield on top of it.
The SEC’s ruling on Grayscale’s staking filings isn’t due until the end of October. The markets regulator is being careful with applications for crypto ETFs.
Since their launch in 2024, Ether ETFs had a cumulative net inflow of $2.28 billion. That’s a huge sum of money. It’s a far cry from the $35.4 billion inflows that were enjoyed by Bitcoin funds.
The potential yield from staking Ether is an important draw for investors. Currently, Coinbase is calculating the annual yield on staked Ether at around 2.4%. By contrast, Kraken offers yields between 2% and 7%. This added yield would help make Ether ETFs more appealing to investors – that is, if the SEC approves staking.
