US-based asset management company BlackRock has submitted an application to issue and trade shares of an investment vehicle linked to staked Ether in connection with offering other cryptocurrency products.
In a Friday filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, BlackRock filed registration statement on Form S-1 for the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust. The filing is part of the SEC’s process under which companies are required to list investment vehicles such as ETFs on exchanges, but does not guarantee approval.
Shares of the Ether (ETH) staked fund, which BlackRock intends to list and trade on the Nasdaq exchange under the symbol ETHB, may be one of the first offerings related to staked cryptocurrencies. Investments in gray scale in addition staking functionality on previously approved ETH and mini ETH spot funds in October.
The regulator has not given the green delicate to many cryptocurrency staking funds since first approving spot Ether ETFs in May 2024. However, Canary Capital filed a similar application with the SEC for its Injective product (INJ), and Grayscale and Bitwise launched separate staking products tied to Solana (SOL) in October.
BlackRock manages the largest exchange-traded Bitcoin (BTC) spot fund, the iShares Bitcoin Trust ETF, which trades under the ticker symbol IBIT.
Related: Staking in a Spot Ether ETF could ‘dramatically change the market’
Has BlackRock’s CEO softened his stance on cryptocurrencies?
Larry Fink, who co-founded BlackRock in 1988, said before Bitcoin’s 2017 boom that the cryptocurrency “shows how big the demand for money laundering is in the world.”
Over the years, as the volume and apply of the U.S. digital asset market increased, the CEO made more hopeful comments about cryptocurrency investing, including supporting BlackRock’s launch of a spot Bitcoin ETF and others.
Last week at The Up-to-date York Times’ DealBook Summit, Fink said there had been a “big shift” in his views on cryptocurrencies, but still referred to BTC as a “scary asset.”
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