Staking Crypto ETFs Showing Muted Volumes on Launch Day, Why?

Key Insights:

• Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH) ETF and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) became the first US spot crypto ETFs to enable staking on October 6.
• ETHE traded 28% below October 3 volumes, while Ethereum Mini Trust declined 17.5%.
• The Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL) registered a 73% volume increase but remained at near-average levels.

Grayscale announced on October 6 that it enabled staking features across three funds, marking a first-mover milestone in the US spot crypto exchange-traded product market, but trading volumes failed to surge on debut day.

The Grayscale Ethereum Mini Trust (ETH) and Grayscale Ethereum Trust (ETHE) became the first US-listed spot crypto exchange-traded products to enable staking.

Grayscale Solana Trust (GSOL) has also activated staking, with plans to become one of the first spot Solana ETPs to offer the feature, pending regulatory approval of its uplisting.

The ETHE traded below its 30-day moving average on October 6, with 4.325 million shares valued at $168.2 million changing hands. The figure fell 28% below the 5.55 million shares traded on October 3 and sat beneath the 30-day average of 5.448 million shares.

The Ethereum Mini Trust performed slightly better but still registered subdued activity. The fund traded 5.1 million shares worth $227.1 million on October 6, compared to its 30-day moving average of 4.94 million shares.

The volume represented a 17.5% decline from the 6.18 million shares traded on October 3.

The GSOL outperformed the Ethereum products with 265,558 shares traded, totaling nearly $4.8 million. The volume marked a 73% increase from the 153,238 shares traded on October 3, though the figure remained only slightly above average levels.

Staking Feature Represented Long-Awaited Development

Staking emerged as a long-awaited feature for spot crypto ETFs in the US. The capability to offer native yield helps attract institutional investors to crypto through regulated vehicles, particularly when US Treasury yields decline.

Analysts have highlighted that crypto including Bitcoin and Ethereum ETF with staking capabilities were expected to arrive soon after the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) approved a generic standard for crypto ETF approvals on September 17.

The framework, added to SEC positioning favorable to staking throughout 2025, cleared regulatory hurdles that previously prevented the inclusion of staking features in US-listed products.

The staking mechanism allows fund holders to earn rewards from network validation activities.

So, it begs the question: why did they fail to attract massive volume on their debuts?

Bitcoin Rally Diverted Investor Attention

BTC reached a new all-time high of over $126,000 on October 6, capturing market attention and driving investment flows.

Bitcoin ETFs registered over $1.2 billion in inflows that day, according to Farside Investors data.

Meanwhile, Ethereum ETFs attracted $176.6 million in inflows on October 6, a level below that recorded on October 3. The Solana SSK ETF registered $2.7 million in inflows, contrasting sharply with the $13.4 million recorded on October 1.

The data suggested investor appetite concentrated on Bitcoin as it approached record territory, overshadowing the technical advancement represented by Grayscale’s staking launch.

Market participants appeared to prioritize exposure to the leading cryptocurrency during its price surge rather than new yield-generating features in alternative assets.

Additionally, the subdued response to Grayscale’s staking debut followed the largest weekly inflows to crypto investment products on record.

CoinShares reported that inflows totaled nearly $6 billion during the week ending October 3, with the surge driven by delayed responses to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate cuts and weak employment data.

Inflows Update

The US saw $5 billion in inflows last week, marking a new record for weekly inflows. Switzerland recorded $563 million in inflows while Germany registered $312 million.

Bitcoin attracted $3.55 billion in its largest weekly inflows on record, while Ethereum ETF sector saw $1.48 billion in inflows.

Solana broke its weekly record with $706.5 million in inflows, bringing year-to-date inflows to $2.58 billion.

The massive positioning likely exhausted near-term appetite for additional crypto exposure, leaving less demand for new product features.

As a result, the timing of Grayscale’s staking launch suggested that investors were already heavily positioned in crypto products, with little remaining appetite for immediate additions.

Nevertheless, staking-enabled crypto ETFs still have a favorable landscape ahead of them, both in terms of regulatory and institutional interest.