Three changes just hit the 21Shares Ethereum ETF and its four sister funds for Bitcoin, XRP, Dogecoin, and Polkadot. New SEC filings show new fund names, a new pricing source, and a new fee schedule.
Holders keep the same shares. Behind the label, however, the products start working differently on Thursday.
Staking Moves Into the Ethereum ETF’s Name
Start with the names. On August 25, 21Shares renamed two funds in Delaware. The 21Shares Ethereum ETF became the 21Shares Ethereum Staking ETF. The Polkadot (DOT) fund became the 21Shares Polkadot Staking ETF. Five 8-K filings published this week confirmed the changes.
Not every fund got a new name. The Bitcoin (BTC) fund, run with Cathie Wood’s ARK Invest, stays ARKB. The XRP and Dogecoin (DOGE) funds keep their names too.
The Ethereum fund has staked its ether since earlier this year and publishes a reward schedule. So the rename changes the label, not the machine. Yield is now the headline feature, written into the product’s legal name.
That label matters because the yield race is crowding fast. BlackRock launched a separate staked fund, ETHB, on February 18. Its original spot fund, ETHA, still does not stake. Fidelity went further on August 10. It filed to stake FETH’s ether and pay holders quarterly cash. Investors keep 85% of those rewards, while fees take the rest.
Big money has noticed. Intesa Sanpaolo, Italy’s largest bank, cut its Bitcoin fund stake by 94% last quarter and tripled its staked-Ethereum position. Recent flow data tells the same story. Buyers are chasing yield over price.
New FTSE Pricing and Quarterly Fees Land Thursday
The second change is the price feed. From Thursday, August 27, all five funds will value shares using FTSE indices. FTSE Russell is the London Stock Exchange Group arm behind the Russell 2000.
The switch follows 21Shares ending its CF Benchmarks license. Those CME-branded rates expire for the funds on August 31.
That is a quiet break from an industry standard. CF Benchmarks’ rates still anchor IBIT, BlackRock’s giant Bitcoin fund. Even ETHB, BlackRock’s staked fund, prices against a CME CF rate. The benchmark sets each fund’s daily net asset value, so the switch touches every holder’s statement.
The third change is fees. 21Shares will now collect its sponsor fee at least quarterly instead of weekly. Payment stays in coins, from Bitcoin to DOT.
One caution belongs next to the shiny new names. Staked ether can take weeks to exit a crowded withdrawal queue, a gap raised around Morgan Stanley’s Ethereum ETP. Thursday’s flows will show whether yield on the label wins the money.
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