Grayscale might be gearing up to stake part of its substantial ether holdings from its ETHE ETF, based on a series of onchain transactions seen on analytics platform Arkham.

“They’ve moved over 40K ETH in the last hour as they position (1.5M ETH) for staking rewards. They are the first Ethereum ETF in the US Markets to do so,” noted onchain analyst Emmett Gallic on X. 

The specific structuring of transactions – in batches of 3,200 ETH each equaling exactly 100 validators – strongly suggests it will be used for staking purposes, Gallic explained.

This story is an excerpt from the Unchained Daily newsletter.

He also suggested that if Grayscale were to stake its 1.5 million ETH stash at a rate of between 3% and 4%, it could earn as much as $276 million per year, based on the current price of ETH.

Grayscale’s moves come after the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) indicated last month that some forms of liquid staking wouldn’t fall under the securities regulator’s jurisdiction.