Fidelity moves to add staking, quarterly payouts to near $900 million ether ETF
Fidelity Investments has filed to add staking capabilities and quarterly cash distributions to its $900 million ether ETF. This move follows a recent IRS bulletin allowing crypto trusts to stake assets without compromising their tax status, aligning Fidelity with other major crypto fund providers.
Why it matters
The integration of staking into institutional-grade ETFs represents a significant evolution in how traditional financial firms handle digital assets, potentially increasing yield for investors.
FETH, with $898 million in net assets, could stake as much as 100% of its ether under normal conditions, though Fidelity set no minimum, according to an amended registration statement . The fund would keep some ETH available for redemptions, expenses and other liquidity needs.
The shift follows an IRS safe harbor bulletin issued in November 2025 that lets qualifying crypto trusts stake assets without losing their grantor-trust tax status. Fidelity would join Grayscale and 21Shares in adding staking to existing ether funds. BlackRock took a different route by introducing a separate staking product .
Fidelity would retain 85% of gross staking rewards, while the remaining 15% would go to the fund sponsor, custodians and node operators. Blockdaemon, Figment and Galaxy are named as the trust’s node operators.
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