BlackRock Drops the Staked ETH Bomb: $11B Giant Finally Brings Yield to Wall Street

On November 19, 2025, BlackRock officially fired the starting gun in the staked Ethereum ETF race by registering the iShares Staked Ethereum Trust in Delaware – the first formal step toward giving investors direct ETH exposure plus ~3.95% annual staking rewards in one regulated wrapper. This move upgrades its massively successful iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA), which currently holds $11.47 billion in assets but still lacks staking due to earlier regulatory and operational roadblocks now cleared away.

The playing field is already crowded: REX-Osprey beat everyone with its ESK launch in September, Grayscale flipped the staking switch on its ETH and SOL funds in October, and VanEck registered its own Lido-tied product weeks ago. Yet none of them are BlackRock. With $13 billion already poured into ETHA and a whopping $73 billion parked in its Bitcoin ETF (IBIT), the $10+ trillion asset-management titan brings unmatched brand power, distribution muscle, and institutional trust that smaller players simply can’t match.

Thanks to the SEC’s September 2025 green light on generic crypto ETF listings – killing the old per-product 19b-4 requirement – BlackRock’s path to approval just got lightning fast. Late to the party? Maybe. But when the world’s biggest money manager finally shows up with a yield-bearing Ethereum ETF, the party tends to move to wherever BlackRock is standing. Get ready for another flood of billions into staked ETH.