BlackRock has asked U.S. regulators for permission to add staking to its iShares Ethereum Trust, the largest of the nine spot Ether exchange-traded funds launched last year. Nasdaq submitted a 19b-4 rule-change request to the Securities and Exchange Commission on 17 July, seeking to let the fund use the Ether it holds to validate transactions on the blockchain and collect staking rewards. Allowing staking would turn the ETF into a yield-generating product, with the trust entitled to receive all or part of the rewards earned by an external staking provider. The iShares vehicle has attracted more than $7 billion in net inflows—more than twice the haul of its nearest rival—and ended Thursday just under $26 a share. The SEC’s final deadline on the request is April 2026, although analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence anticipate a ruling as early as the fourth quarter of 2025. Rival issuers including Fidelity, Grayscale and 21Shares have lodged similar proposals, underscoring growing demand for yield-bearing crypto funds. Ethereum ETFs have drawn about $2.3 billion over the past nine trading days, setting a record one-day total of $726.6 million on 16 July, nearly $500 million of which went to BlackRock’s fund.