Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF marks one year of staking payouts
The fund says it has distributed over $33.5 million in staking rewards since it began earning yield on its Ether holdings
A year ago, Grayscale’s Ethereum Mini ETF was a fairly simple product: you bought shares, and those shares tracked Ether. Then it started putting that Ether to work.
According to Grayscale, the Ethereum Staking Mini ETF (ticker: ETH) has distributed over $33.5 million in staking rewards over the past year. The firm also says the fund outperformed other Ether exchange-traded products and averaged $5.5 million in daily trading volume during that stretch.
The numbers behind the first staking year
Grayscale enabled staking for the fund in October 2025. Research compiled on the product describes it as a pioneer among US-listed spot Ether ETPs in offering this feature.
As of early October 2026, the fund had reported approximately $33.9 million in net staking rewards. That figure reflects a gross staking yield of about 2.67%.
Around 80.4% of fund assets are currently staked, leaving roughly a fifth of the holdings sitting unstaked.
The fund charges a management fee of 0.15%. The gross staking yield comfortably exceeds that fee.
Rewards are distributed monthly. So rather than a lump sum at year’s end, shareholders get a recurring trickle of staking income.
The news moving money, markets, and the world—before your day starts.
Daily. Free. Join 34,000+ readers across crypto, finance, and policy.
The fund’s assets under management sit at approximately $2.52 billion, with about 97.45 million shares outstanding. Recent net asset value per share has hovered around the $25.80 range.
From mini ETF to staking ETF
The product launched on July 23, 2024, as a straightforward spot Ether exposure vehicle. After staking went live in October 2025, Grayscale renamed the fund the Grayscale Ethereum Staking Mini ETF, effective January 5, 2026.
The fund holds Ether directly, both staked and unstaked, and aims to track the CoinDesk Ether Benchmark Rate. It operates as a grantor trust, which lets it sidestep the regulatory constraints of the Investment Company Act of 1940. Investors are treated as owning a slice of the underlying Ether rather than shares in a conventionally regulated investment company.
What this means for Ether ETF investors
Staking turns spot Ether exposure into something closer to a yield-bearing asset. A roughly 2.67% gross yield gives holders a return that exists independently of whether Ether is up or down that month.
The roughly 80% staking ratio means the fund’s effective yield to shareholders depends partly on how much Ether it keeps staked versus held in reserve. Any change in that ratio would ripple through to distributions.
The 2.67% figure is a gross number reported at a point in time, and staking rewards on Ethereum can move as network conditions change.
The research on the product suggests this could pave the way for similar offerings across the crypto ETP landscape, and that staking-enabled funds may attract both institutional and retail participants.