Ethereum Staking ETFs (2026): Which Funds Stake and Pay Out
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Short answer: As of 6 Oct 2026, six US spot ether funds stake the ETH they hold: BlackRock’s ETHB, Grayscale’s ETH and ETHE, Fidelity’s FETH, 21shares’ TETH and Morgan Stanley’s MSSE. All six sell their net staking rewards and pay them out in cash: ETHB, ETH, ETHE and MSSE aim to pay monthly, FETH and TETH quarterly. The biggest ether fund, iShares’ ETHA, does not stake, and neither does Bitwise’s ETHW. With the network paying stakers about 2.6% a year, the cheaper funds leave you roughly 1.6% to 1.8% after cuts and fees on paper, and recent payouts have come in lower. These payments are not dividends in the corporate sense, and the rewards are generally taxable to you even if you never sell.
If you are still deciding whether to own ether at all, start with our review of whether Ethereum is a good investment. This guide covers which funds pay you the staking yield, and how much.
Which Ethereum ETFs stake? #
The table covers every US spot ether ETF that stakes, plus the two biggest-name funds that do not. “Cut” is the share of gross staking rewards kept by the sponsor, custodian and node operators before the fund receives the rest. The expense ratio is charged separately.
| Fund (ticker) | Fee | Stakes? Share staked | Cut of rewards | Payout | Custody / staking | Assets |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) | 0.25%; 0.12% on first $2.5B until Mar 2027 | Yes: 86.9% (30 Jun); target 70–95% | 18% | Cash, monthly | Coinbase Custody, Anchorage; Coinbase Prime | $1.20B (5 Oct) |
| Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ETH) | 0.15% | Yes: 80.4% (5 Oct) | 6% | Cash, monthly since Sep 2026 | Coinbase Custody, Anchorage | $2.52B (5 Oct) |
| Grayscale Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE) | 2.50% | Yes: 81.5% (5 Oct) | 23% | Cash, monthly since Jan 2026 | Coinbase Custody, Anchorage | $1.95B (5 Oct) |
| Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) | 0.25% | Yes; share not disclosed | 15% | Cash, quarterly | Fidelity Digital Assets, Anchorage, BitGo | $759M (30 Jun) |
| 21shares Ethereum Staking ETF (TETH) | 0.21%, fully waived to 8 Oct 2027 | Yes: 86.4% (30 Jun) | 25% | Cash, quarterly | Coinbase, BitGo, Anchorage | $38.1M (5 Oct) |
| Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) | 0.14% | Yes: target 50–80% | 5% | Cash, monthly | BNY, Coinbase Custody; Figment | $53.3M (2 Oct) |
| iShares Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHA) | 0.25% | No | — | — | — | $9.94B (5 Oct) |
| Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW) | 0.20% | No | — | — | — | $301M (4 Oct) |
Sources: issuer pages linked above; ETHB’s prospectus and June 10-Q; Grayscale’s June 10-Qs for ETH and ETHE (reward cuts); FETH’s 8-K and 10-Q; TETH’s 10-Q and 6 Oct fee-waiver release; Figment and ETF Central for MSSE.
Read the table with care. Grayscale’s staked figure can include ETH waiting in the network’s entry and exit queues, while the ETHB and TETH figures come from 30 June filings. TETH’s website says it “generally intends to stake between 40% and 70%” of its ETH, yet it was 86.4% staked at 30 June. VanEck’s ETHV (0.20%), Franklin’s EZET (0.19%) and Invesco Galaxy’s QETH (0.25%) described no staking program in their June quarterly reports (ETHV, EZET, QETH). REX-Osprey’s ESK, a 1940 Act fund that launched in September 2025, is built differently and not covered here.
How does staking inside an ETF work? #
What changed in 2025 #
No single SEC vote “approved staking.” Three 2025 steps cleared the way:
- 29 May 2025: the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance said that protocol staking, including through custodians, does “not involve the offer and sale of securities.” That is a staff view, not a rule.
- 17 Sep 2025: the SEC approved generic listing standards on Nasdaq, Cboe BZX and NYSE Arca for funds holding spot commodities, including digital assets. Exchanges no longer need a separate rule filing for each qualifying fund.
- November 2025: the IRS issued Revenue Procedure 2025-31, a safe harbor that lets a listed grantor trust stake without losing its tax status. One condition: net rewards “must be distributed in-kind or as cash proceeds… on at least a quarterly basis,” as EY summarized it. That is why every fund in the table now pays out rather than letting rewards pile up in the share price.
Grayscale switched on staking in ETHE and ETH on 6 Oct 2025, calling them the first US-listed spot crypto ETPs to enable staking. 21shares added staking to TETH the same month. BlackRock launched ETHB as a separate fund in March 2026, MSSE began trading with staking on 28 Jul 2026, and Fidelity added staking to FETH after its updated registration took effect on 21 Aug 2026.
The liquidity buffer and the exit queue #
Staked ETH cannot be sold instantly. On 6 Oct, validatorqueue.com showed 1.41 million ETH waiting to start staking, a wait of about 24 days, and 844,384 ETH waiting to exit, about 15 days plus a 7.5-day withdrawal sweep. ETHB’s prospectus notes the longest exit queue on record was 46.5 days.
Funds must meet redemptions daily, so they keep some ETH unstaked. ETHB targets a “Liquidity Sleeve” of 5% to 30% unstaked ETH. MSSE plans to stake 50% to 80%. FETH may stake up to 100% but sets no minimum. Unstaked ETH earns nothing, and as iShares notes, “while queued for activation, the Trust’s ether will not accrue rewards.”
Who gets which share of the rewards #
The network pays validators. The node operator, the custodian and, at most funds, the sponsor then take the cut shown in the table, from 5% at MSSE (Morgan Stanley itself takes none) to 25% at TETH. The fund sells the rest for dollars and pays it out. The expense ratio is charged separately against the fund’s assets, so a cash payout is not your net return.
How much yield do you actually get? #
A rough estimate: network rate × share staked × (1 − cut) − expense ratio. The table uses the 2.59% network APR from validatorqueue.com and each fund’s disclosed figures. It is illustrative, not a forecast. FETH is left out because it has not disclosed how much it stakes.
| Fund | Network APR | Share staked | Kept after cut | Fee | Illustrative net |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| ETH | 2.59% | 80.4% | 94% | 0.15% | ~1.81% |
| ETHB | 2.59% | 86.9% | 82% | 0.12% (waiver) | ~1.73% |
| TETH | 2.59% | 86.4% | 75% | 0.00% (waiver) | ~1.68% |
| MSSE | 2.59% | 50–80% (target) | 95% | 0.14% | ~1.09%–1.83% |
| ETHE | 2.59% | 81.5% | 77% | 2.50% | ~−0.87% |
Fees and cuts matter more than the headline rate: ETHE’s 2.50% fee exceeds all the staking income it can earn. Waivers also end. At full fees, ETHB’s figure drops to about 1.60% and TETH’s to about 1.47%.
Real results have been lower. ETHB reported a 30-day staking rewards rate of 1.37% on 5 Oct, net of staking fees and measured against the whole fund, versus about 1.85% from our formula before its fee. A likely reason: ETHB’s ETH holdings grew about 53% from 30 June to 5 Oct, by our calculation, and new ETH earns nothing while it waits in the entry queue. ETHB’s September payout of $0.036487 a share, times 12, is about 1.3% of its $34.89 close on 5 Oct. ETH’s $0.034765 September payout annualizes to about 1.6% of its current NAV. One month is a noisy sample.
Issuers’ own yield figures are not like-for-like. Grayscale’s “net staking rewards” of 2.51% for ETH and 2.05% for ETHE are “a percentage of the staked assets only,” and 21shares’ 2.65% for TETH (1 Oct) is what its validators earned after fees. Multiply such figures by the share staked before comparing them with ETHB’s fund-level 1.37%.
What are the risks? #
- Slashing. Validators that break protocol rules lose part of their stake. Fidelity’s prospectus warns there is “no guarantee that the Trust would recover any of its staked assets” if slashing occurs.
- Exit delays. In a rush of redemptions, a fund may have to unstake into a long queue. A bigger buffer helps, but lowers the yield.
- Sponsor discretion. ETHB’s prospectus lets the sponsor stop staking over regulatory concerns or software vulnerabilities. MSSE stakes only to the extent its sponsor “in its sole discretion determines” it can without undue legal or regulatory risk. FETH’s sponsor may “modify, suspend, or terminate distributions at any time.”
- Concentration. A handful of firms do the work. Coinbase Custody holds ETH for ETHB, ETH, ETHE, TETH and MSSE, and ETHB stakes through Coinbase Prime.
- Policy and tax risk. The SEC position is a staff statement, the tax safe harbor has conditions a fund must keep meeting, and the tax reporting is complex (see below).
How are staking ETF payouts taxed? #
This is general information, not tax advice.
These funds are grantor trusts, so for US tax purposes you are treated as owning your slice of the fund’s ETH and income. ETHB’s prospectus says the trust’s receipt of staking rewards “would be treated as giving rise to taxable income… under current IRS guidance,” and that this “could result in beneficial owners of Shares incurring tax liability without an associated distribution from the Trust.”
Grayscale’s staking tax FAQ says it intends to report staking rewards as taxable income to shareholders “whether or not the product makes any corresponding distribution,” and to include them in each fund’s annual tax letter, which you, your broker and your tax preparer can use. When a fund sells ETH to fund a cash payout, you are treated as selling a slice of all its ETH, which “may result in taxable income to shareholders that is incremental to” the staking income. The cash you receive and the income you report will rarely match.
Two more wrinkles. ETHB’s prospectus says individuals generally cannot deduct the trust’s expenses. And if you are not a US person, Canadians included, Grayscale says a broker may withhold US tax on your share of staking income whether or not cash is paid out.
Who might a staking ETF suit? #
It may suit you if you would hold ether anyway, want the staking yield without running a validator, and accept extra tax paperwork. A low-cost staking fund can add roughly 1.6% to 1.8% a year on paper.
A plain fund such as ETHA may suit you better if you want the simplest tax picture, or you see ether as a small speculative position where a yield under 2% a year matters less than declines of two-thirds or more. Our ETP vs ETF guide explains how these US funds differ from Europe’s note-based crypto products, and our crypto treasury stocks explainer covers companies that hold ETH directly.
In an IRA, the prospectuses tell IRA holders to consult a tax adviser. ETHB warns that tax-exempt holders “may recognize unrelated business taxable income.” Grayscale believes its staking income should not count as such income, but notes the IRS has not ruled on it.
For other coins, see our guides to US Solana ETFs, which also stake, and US XRP ETFs, which cannot.
FAQ #
Do Ethereum ETFs pay dividends? Not dividends in the corporate sense. Six staking funds pay cash distributions from staking rewards, monthly at ETHB, ETH, ETHE and MSSE and quarterly at FETH and TETH. Amounts vary and are taxable.
Which Ethereum ETF has staking? ETHB (iShares), ETH and ETHE (Grayscale), FETH (Fidelity), TETH (21shares) and MSSE (Morgan Stanley). ETHA, ETHW, ETHV, EZET and QETH do not stake.
Is ETHA staking? No. BlackRock put staking in a separate fund, the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB). ETHA charges the same 0.25% base fee but holds only ether.
How much yield does an Ethereum staking ETF pay? On paper, about 1.6% to 1.8% a year after fees at the cheaper funds, from a network rate near 2.6%. Recent monthly payouts annualize to about 1.3% to 1.6%. ETHE’s 2.50% fee more than wipes out its yield.
Are staking ETF distributions taxed? Generally yes. You are taxed on your share of the fund’s staking rewards when the fund receives them, even before any cash arrives, and the ETH sales that fund payouts can create extra gains. Check each fund’s annual tax letter.
Which Ethereum staking ETF is cheapest? It depends on the fee and the cut together. MSSE charges 0.14% and gives up 5% of rewards. ETH charges 0.15% and gives up 6%. TETH charges nothing until 8 Oct 2027 but gives up 25%.
Not financial advice. Capital at risk.