Cboe Asks the SEC to Allow Staking in Several Spot Ether (ETH) Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs)

Before the funds launched in July, several issuers included staking in their applications. However, the SEC later required them to remove the feature

Crypto exchange Cboe is asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to allow staking in several spot ether (ETH) exchange-traded funds (ETFs), sending the price of token 2% higher over the past 24 hours.

Several issuers included staking in their applications for the funds, which launched in July. However, the SEC later required them to remove the feature, as the Commission was not permitting it at the time.

Cboe, which is linked with five of the issuers of an ether ETF, including Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, VanEck, and Invesco/Galaxy, on Tuesday, filed amended 19b-4 documents for the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH) and the Franklin Ethereum ETF (EZET), to allow staking.

The move comes after former SEC chair Gary Gensler stepped down from the Commission, shortly after the inauguration of crypto-friendly President Donald Trump in January.

Trump's candidate to lead the SEC, Paul Atkins, hasn't yet been scheduled for a hearing or confirmation vote in the Senate. Commissioner Mark Uyeda is the acting chair until then. Under Uyeda's tenure, the SEC has made several positive developments in response to other crypto-related ETF applications, rendering hope that staking might see a favorable response from Commissioners.

Cboe’s request to stake will likely be approved, stated James Seyffart, ETF analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence. “There’s still things that need to be sorted but we expect the SEC will allow staking in the ETFs this year,” he said.

Apart from filing to add the staking feature, companies have also filed to launch ETF products for a broader range of digital assets. In the past week, companies set up Delaware companies for Sui (SUI) and Aptos (APT), and the SEC is already examining several applications for Solana (SOL) and XRP (XRP), among others.