Grayscale announced the inaugural staking distribution for its Ethereum Staking ETF (ETHE), declaring a payout of $0.083178 per share tied to a January 5, 2026 record date. Shareholders who held ETHE on that date are eligible for the payment; the fund plans to disburse the staking rewards on January 6, 2026.
Grayscale listed a per-share distribution of $0.083178 for ETHE holders as of the January 5, 2026 record date. The actual cash distribution is scheduled for January 6, 2026, and will be processed to holders on the books as of the record date.
Grayscale summarized the announcement on its official X account on January 5, 2026, noting that “ETHE became the first U.S. Ethereum ETP to distribute staking rewards back to investors.” That post framed the distribution as a first for U.S. crypto ETPs and signalled the firm’s intent to operationalize staking within an exchange-traded structure.
The move makes ETHE the first U.S.-listed Ethereum exchange-traded product to route native staking revenue directly to investors, a development that bridges on-chain yield mechanics and regulated investment vehicles.
How Grayscale is delivering staking rewards
Grayscale is using a passive staking approach that, according to the firm, relies on institutional custodians and a diversified set of validators to reduce single-party risk and reinforce network participation. That operational design aims to offer a regulated avenue for investors to access staking yield without direct validator management.
By combining a pool of staked assets with an unstaked liquidity sleeve, Grayscale intends to manage redemption and liquidity pressures that arise from Ethereum’s unbonding window while still collecting and distributing staking rewards.
Market context: the distribution follows Grayscale’s broader rollout of spot-staking ETPs that began in 2025 and places ETHE among the first U.S. investment products to embed native staking into their economics. The firm’s reported scale of staked ETH means the fund’s operational choices could have material effects on yield delivery and product spreads.
Investors will watch the January 6, 2026 disbursement closely as an operational test of this model: whether the payout timing, net yield after fees, and liquidity mechanics align with expectations will shape demand for staking-enabled ETPs and influence how other issuers design comparable products.
