Following an updated spot Ether ETF application from Fidelity that suggested staking “a portion” of the fund’s ETH to generate extra income, the price of LDO experienced a temporary spike.
To give investors extra income, financial services behemoth Fidelity requests authorization to stake a portion of the $3,379 worth of Ether held by its planned spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF).
If the ETF were authorized, Fidelity stated in a 19b-4 amendment submitted to the US Securities and Exchange Commission on March 18 that the fund would use one or more reputable staking providers to stake an undisclosed portion of its assets.
In its updated application, Fidelity stated that “The Sponsor may, from time to time, stake a part of the Fund’s assets through one or more trusted staking providers, which may include an affiliate of the Sponsor (“Staking Providers”).
Fidelity did not name a particular stake supplier. Today’s market has several other staking providers, such as Lido DAO, RocketPool, and StakeWise.
The most significant source of liquid Ethereum staking, Lido DAO, had a slight 6% increase in price on the news, rising from $2.48 to $2.56 before reverting to $2.49, according to TradingView data.
However, Lido DAO has dropped 27% in the past week due to a broader decline in Ether and several tokens in its ecosystem.
Fidelity is one of eight fund issuers who have applied for an Ether ETF; the SEC is now reviewing the applications.
Ark 21Shares also announced plans to stake some ETH from its new fund on February 8. A few days later, Franklin Templeton joined the Ether ETF race and planned to stake some Ether in the ETF to generate extra revenue.
On November 18 last year, it joined the competition, along with the most significant investment business in the world, BlackRock, ARK Invest, Cathie Wood, and Grayscale, a cryptocurrency asset management company.
Van Eck’s last deadline is May 23. If the SEC does not approve all eight ETFs by then, all potential issuers must reapply later.
By Van Eck’s deadline in May, only 35% of spot Ether ETF approvals were expected, according to Bloomberg ETF analyst Eric Balchunas.
Although Blachunas estimated there was a 70% chance of approval in January, he told Cointelegraph that the SEC’s “radio silence” towards potential fund issuers and the political backlash against Chair Gary Gensler were warning indicators for the clearance process.