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

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

National securities exchange Cboe is asking the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to permit several exchange-traded funds (ETFs) to stake ether ETHUSD tokens, a move that sent the price of the token 2% higher over the past 24 hours.

Several issuers included staking in their applications for the funds, ahead of their launch in July. But the SEC later required them to remove the feature, as the Commission wasn't 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 left the Commission; he stepped down shortly before the inauguration of crypto-friendly President Donald Trump in January.

Trump's nominee to run the SEC, Paul Atkins, hasn't been scheduled for a hearing or confirmation vote in the Senate yet. Commissioner Mark Uyeda is the acting chair until Atkins is sworn in. Under Uyeda's watch, the SEC has made several positive moves in regards to other crypto-related ETF applications, spurring hope that staking might see a positive response from Commissioners.

Cboe’s request to stake will likely be approved, said 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.

Beyond adding staking, companies are applying to launch ETF products for a range of digital assets. In the last week, companies set up Delaware companies for Sui (SUI) and Aptos (APT), while the SEC is already reviewing several applications for Solana SOLUSD and XRP XRPUSD, among others.