Ethereum (ETH) is up 3% on Tuesday following Cboe BZX's filing with the Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) for Fidelity to permit staking within its spot Ethereum ETF.
Cboe BZX Exchange filed a 19b-4 with the SEC on Tuesday to allow staking within the Fidelity Ethereum Fund (FETH).
"Based on discussions with the Sponsor, the Exchange proposes to amend several portions of the ETH ETP Amendment No. 2, as amended, in order to allow the staking of ether held by the Trust," the filing states.
Prior to Fidelity, Grayscale and 21Shares also filed to seek approval from the SEC to permit staking within their respective ETFs.
Staking involves earning passive income by using crypto assets to contribute to a blockchain's security.
The latest filings from US spot Ethereum ETF issuers to include staking in their products follow recent administrative changes at the SEC, including the resignation of the agency's former Chair, Gary Gensler, on January 20..
Before ETH ETF approval in July 2024, most issuers removed staking from their initial filings upon rumors that the Gensler-led SEC wasn't comfortable with the feature.
However, the agency may reconsider its stance, considering President Donald Trump and the new SEC administration under acting Chair Mark Uyeda leaning towards pro-crypto regulations.
Nate Geraci, President of the ETF Store, has previously predicted that US spot Ethereum ETFs have the potential to surpass Bitcoin ETFs if the SEC allows issuers to stake their holdings.
Ethereum ETFs posted a fourth consecutive day of negative flows on Monday, recording $37.50 million in outflows.
Ethereum saw $131.39 million in futures liquidations in the past 24 hours, per Coinglass data. The total amount of liquidated long and short positions was $83.31 million and $48.09 million, respectively.
ETH found support near $1,750 — a level obtained by measuring the percentage change between the $2,850 and $2,200 rectangular channel and projecting it downward.
ETH/USDT daily chart
If the top altcoin holds the $1750 support and reclaims the $2,200 level, it could test the $2,850 key resistance.
The Relative Strength Index (RSI) and Stochastic Oscillator (Stoch) have retreated from their oversold regions, indicating a decline in the bearish pressure.
A daily candlestick close below $1,500 will invalidate the thesis and potentially send ETH toward the $1,000 psychological level.
Ethereum is a decentralized open-source blockchain with smart contracts functionality. Its native currency Ether (ETH), is the second-largest cryptocurrency and number one altcoin by market capitalization. The Ethereum network is tailored for building crypto solutions like decentralized finance (DeFi), GameFi, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs), etc.
Ethereum is a public decentralized blockchain technology, where developers can build and deploy applications that function without the need for a central authority. To make this easier, the network leverages the Solidity programming language and Ethereum virtual machine which helps developers create and launch applications with smart contract functionality.
Smart contracts are publicly verifiable codes that automates agreements between two or more parties. Basically, these codes self-execute encoded actions when predetermined conditions are met.
Staking is a process of earning yield on your idle crypto assets by locking them in a crypto protocol for a specified duration as a means of contributing to its security. Ethereum transitioned from a Proof-of-Work (PoW) to a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) consensus mechanism on September 15, 2022, in an event christened “The Merge.” The Merge was a key part of Ethereum's roadmap to achieve high-level scalability, decentralization and security while remaining sustainable. Unlike PoW, which requires the use of expensive hardware, PoS reduces the barrier of entry for validators by leveraging the use of crypto tokens as the core foundation of its consensus process.
Gas is the unit for measuring transaction fees that users pay for conducting transactions on Ethereum. During periods of network congestion, gas can be extremely high, causing validators to prioritize transactions based on their fees.