Grayscale Launches First Ether Staking ETP as ETH Closes on ATH

Grayscale Investments announced an industry first on Monday by enabling staking for two of its Ethereum ETFs, the Grayscale Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHE) and Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust ETF (ETH), making them the first US-listed spot crypto exchange-traded product to offer this feature.

The company has also activated staking for its Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL), which currently trades over-the-counter and is awaiting regulatory approval.

The two Ether funds have different investment goals, with ETHE to pay distributions for those who like cash flow, while ETH will roll staking returns into net asset value (NAV) so they can compound over time, the firm stated.

Ethereum Staking Still Healthy

The products will offer additional staking yields, supposedly making it more attractive than a regular spot crypto fund, such as the Bitcoin ETF.

Staking will be conducted passively through institutional custodians and validator providers to help secure the underlying blockchain protocols.

The company also plans to expand staking to additional products and has published educational materials on how staking works.

The Grayscale ETHE fund has hemorrhaged capital since it launched with $4.5 billion exiting the product because its fees are much higher than its competitors, such as BlackRock (ETHA) and Fidelity (FETH). However, its mini-trust (ETH) has seen some of that in inflows, which have totalled $1.5 billion.

It is highly likely that the major ETF issuers will follow suit and offer staking in their own funds soon.

There is currently a total of 35.7 million ETH worth $167 billion and representing around 30% of the total supply staked. However, the exit queue is still very high with around 2.5 million ETH waiting to be unstaked.

ETH Closes On ATH

The Grayscale launch has come as Ether closes in on its all-time high, reaching a three-week high of $4,734 on Monday.

It has currently cooled back to $4,680 during Tuesday morning Asian trading, which puts ETH just 5.4% away from its all-time high in August.

“Ethereum’s liquidity reset is complete,” and the sweep below $4,000 was the “reload zone,” said analyst ‘Merlijn the Trader.’

“Now the chart screams expansion,” he added with a prediction that ETH would reach $10,000 to $14,000 this cycle.

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