Grayscale for the first time distributes staking yields to ETHE shareholders, marking a watershed moment in the integration of U.S. stocks and blockchain
(Background: Global ETF growth in 2025 “attracts $1.5 trillion in funds,” with BlackRock’s Bitcoin IBIT being the only one among the top 15 that incurs losses)
(Additional context: 2025 Crypto ETF review: Bitcoin, Ethereum flourish, more tokens like XRP join the feast)

Table of Contents

• First Crypto ETF Dividend
• Regulatory Deregulation Sparks Yield War
• Structural Risks Hidden Behind High Returns

On the evening of January 5, 2026, just minutes before the U.S. stock market closed, a single announcement from Grayscale shook the New York financial circle: its Ethereum spot ETF, ticker ETHE, will pay a cash dividend of $0.083178 per share, totaling approximately $9.4 million. Wall Street has long regarded Bitcoin and Ethereum as speculative assets that profit solely from price volatility; now, for the first time, “cash flow” has been realized, forcing a rewrite of the narrative.

First Crypto ETF Dividend

According to the official announcement, the dividend covers rewards earned from staking Ethereum between October 6, 2025, and December 31, 2025. ETHE currently manages about $4.1 billion in assets. This move signifies that crypto financial products have officially transitioned from “asset exposure” to “interest-earning assets.” Investors no longer need to operate cold wallets themselves to share in on-chain technical yields.

After Ethereum transitioned to Proof-of-Stake, validators maintain network security by locking up more than 32 ETH and receive on-chain rewards. Grayscale delegates the ETH held in the fund to validation nodes, and the rewards earned are sold on the market for USD, which are then distributed as cash. From a fundamental perspective, staking rewards are essentially “network service fees,” and this operation moves the native token earnings into traditional securities accounts, creating a genuine cash flow comparable to dividends or coupons.

Although GrayScale ETHE charges an annual management fee of 2.5%, the recent regulatory deregulation now allows the distribution of PoS yields, enabling staking rewards to cover fees and making ETHE more competitively attractive.

Regulatory Deregulation Sparks Yield War

Behind this innovation is a regulatory shift following the change in U.S. administration. SEC Chairman Paul Atkins, appointed in 2025, adopted a “disclosure-based regulation,” relaxing staking mechanisms and setting a precedent for dividends. Data shows:

• Ethereum staking yields approximately 2.98% to 5% annually
• U.S. 10-year Treasury yields about 4.16%

When ETH’s dividend capacity approaches or exceeds that of government bonds, asset managers will inevitably reevaluate allocations. Industry leader BlackRock’s iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) holds about $11.1 billion in assets but has not yet enabled staking. To maintain market share, Grayscale has chosen to “get ahead.” Market sources indicate that BlackRock has submitted an application for ETHB with staking functionality, followed closely by Fidelity and 21Shares. In 2026, a “yield vs. no-yield” rate competition is expected to unfold.

Hidden Structural Risks Behind High Returns

There are costs behind the yields. ETHE, to gain staking flexibility, is not regulated under the Investment Company Act of 1940, lacking the oversight of an independent board of directors typical of traditional ETFs. On-chain mechanisms also introduce two potential risks: first, unbonding requires waiting for network scheduling, which may prevent immediate liquidity in extreme market conditions; second, operational errors at validation nodes could trigger “penalty mechanisms,” directly eroding fund net asset value and harming holders.

January 5, 2026, thus becomes a timestamp marking the intersection of traditional Wall Street and decentralized finance. Dividends are no longer exclusive to stocks, coupons are no longer only for bonds, and blockchain-native yields are packaged into code-based ETF trading, opening a new asset competition arena. The regulatory benefits from the Trump era will determine the future direction of this trend, which still requires long-term market and risk mechanism validation.