The cryptocurrency market witnessed a significant institutional milestone as BlackRock's iShares Staked Ethereum Trust ETF (ETHB) recorded over $15.5 million in trading volume on its first day of trading. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart described the debut as "very solid." The ETF launched with more than $100 million in assets, marking BlackRock's first crypto ETF to incorporate staking rewards. According to its prospectus, ETHB plans to stake 70% to 95% of its ether holdings "under normal market conditions," distributing approximately 82% of staking rewards monthly to investors.
This launch coincided with continued inflows into U.S. crypto ETFs. On Thursday, bitcoin ETFs added a combined $53.8 million, while ether ETFs attracted $72.4 million. In contrast, spot XRP ETFs experienced $6 million in outflows.
In regulatory news, U.S. Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated that the Clarity Act is unlikely to advance before April, as reported by Punchbowl. Negotiations remain stalled over a key provision: whether companies should be permitted to offer yield on stablecoins. This point has created a deadlock between crypto firms and traditional banks. The House has already passed the bill, which aims to establish a comprehensive U.S. regulatory framework for digital assets.
Separately, the Senate passed a comprehensive housing bill that includes a provision prohibiting the Federal Reserve from issuing a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC). This legislation now moves to the House for consideration.
In other developments, a major incident in decentralized finance saw a crypto whale lose nearly $50 million after attempting to swap $50 million in aEthUSDT for aEthAAVE via Aave's interface powered by the CoW Protocol aggregator. The trade returned only about $36,000 worth of tokens after the user accepted extraordinary slippage warnings. Both Aave founder Stani Kulechov and CoW Protocol stated they would refund fees collected from the failed transaction.
Looking ahead, the market is focused on upcoming macroeconomic events, including the Federal Reserve's interest rate decision and key inflation data from the Eurozone and U.S. next week.
