Overview
- Trading under the ticker ETHB on Nasdaq, the fund opened with just over $100 million in assets, with market data pointing to roughly $106.7 million at launch and about 592,000 shares changing hands on day one.
- According to the prospectus, the trust stakes between 70% and 95% of its ether and distributes about 82% of staking rewards to shareholders each month, with the remainder allocated to the trust, custodians and staking providers.
- ETHB charges a 0.25% sponsor fee, reduced to 0.12% for the first 12 months on the initial $2.5 billion in assets under a launch waiver.
- BlackRock named Coinbase and Anchorage as custodians, approved Figment, Galaxy and Attestant as validators, and disclosed a Coinbase base staking fee of 10% of rewards that would drop to 6% if assets reach $20 billion.
- Analysts described the debut as a solid start for a new ETF, as ETHB becomes BlackRock’s first staking product and third crypto ETF, with reports citing a roughly 3%–4% annual staking yield under typical network conditions.