Morgan Stanley has updated its filing for a proposed Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded fund, preparing to add a staking arrangement in addition to spot holdings. The company disclosed that the two funds intend to stake a portion of their underlying crypto assets to increase fund revenue, with an annual sponsorship fee set at 0.14%.
95% of the pledged proceeds remain within the fund.
The announcement indicates that the Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust and the Morgan Stanley Solana Trust employ similar structures. Staking service providers and custodians will receive 5% of the staking rewards as compensation, with the remaining 95% remaining within the fund.
This means that fund investors, in addition to their direct price exposure to ETH and SOL, may also receive additional returns from on-chain staking. This adjustment also shows that asset management institutions are continuing to push for the inclusion of staking mechanisms in the structure of US crypto ETFs.
- The annual sponsorship fee is 0.14%.
- The service provider and the hosting provider split 5%.
- 95% of the staking rewards remain within the fund.
Ethereum filings reveal 63-day waiting period
In the Ethereum section, the document discloses more specific operational details. The company states that the custodian will deposit the ETH held by the fund into an Ethereum staking smart contract, and then a third-party staking service provider will run validators on behalf of the fund.
The document also warns that staked ETH still face the risk of forfeiture. If validators fail to meet network requirements or violate protocol rules, some of their staked assets may be forfeited.
Morgan Stanley also provided Ethereum's current queuing data. According to the document, as of May 18, 2026, approximately 3.64 million ETH were in the validator activation queue. Based on the current maximum of 56 validators activated per epoch, this equates to approximately 57,600 new ETH being added to the staking pool daily.
Based on this estimate, newly staked ETH may need to wait approximately 63 days before staking rewards begin to be earned.
Solana Trust uses a similar structure
Another revised document shows that Morgan Stanley's Solana Trust will also adopt a similar model. The company disclosed that validators operated by the staking servicer can act as trustee validators to process the SOL pledged by the fund.
Unlike the Ethereum documentation, the Solana version does not disclose a daily limit on the amount of Staking that can be initiated. However, the documentation states that custodians participating in the staking process do not control the private keys associated with the entrusted SOL.
This updated filing continues Morgan Stanley's efforts to expand its digital asset product line. The bank entered the spot Bitcoin ETF market earlier this year and has now further extended its product range to include Ethereum and Solana.
