iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB)

The iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) is an exchange-traded fund designed to track the spot price of ether while capturing staking rewards from validating transactions on the Ethereum network. Sponsored by BlackRock, the trust trades publicly on Nasdaq and allows investors to gain exposure to staked ether within standard brokerage and retirement accounts without managing private keys or hardware wallets.

Sponsor and administration

The trust was established in 2026 as a Delaware statutory trust sponsored by iShares Delaware Trust Sponsor LLC, an affiliate of BlackRock. Headquartered in the United States, BlackRock oversees the fund through its digital assets division and uses BlackRock Fund Advisors alongside Wilmington Trust, National Association as trustee. The trust operates passively and has no corporate employees or executive officers of its own.

Custody and fund mechanics

ETHB holds physical ether backed through institutional custody via Coinbase Prime. The trust tracks the CME CF Ether Dollar Reference Rate, New York Variant benchmark. Unlike standard spot ether funds such as BlackRock's unstaked trust ETHA, ETHB delegates a portion of its underlying ether to validators to earn network staking rewards. Staking income is captured directly by the fund and distributed to shareholders on a monthly schedule. Investors hold equity shares in the trust rather than direct tokens and cannot redeem shares for physical ether.

Fees and trading expenses

The standard sponsor fee is 0.25%. BlackRock established a 12-month fee waiver beginning March 12, 2026, lowering the sponsor fee to 0.12% on the first $2.5 billion in net assets. If assets exceed $2.5 billion during this period, fees on amounts above the threshold incur the standard 0.25% rate, with shareholders paying a blended average. In October 2026, the 30-day median bid/ask spread sat at 0.06%.

Trading history and operational risks

The trust executed its governing agreements on February 5, 2026, had its fund inception on February 18, 2026, and commenced Nasdaq trading under ticker ETHB on March 12, 2026. By late October 2026, the trust held approximately $1.18B in assets under management across 34,280,000 shares outstanding, recording a 30-day staking rewards rate of 1.53%.

Investors face typical digital asset risks, including ether market volatility, regulatory uncertainty, and custodian concentration with Coinbase Prime. Staking introduces validation risks such as technical slashing penalties and network delays during unstaking. The trust operates without registration under the Investment Company Act of 1940, meaning shareholders lack mutual fund protections, nor is it classified as a commodity pool under the Commodity Exchange Act.