ETHC
Overview
The 21shares Ethereum Core Staking ETP (ETHC) is a physically backed exchange-traded product that offers direct exposure to ETH - the native cryptocurrency of the Ethereum blockchain - through a standard brokerage account, eliminating the complexity of purchasing, storing, or managing digital assets directly. The product stakes a portion of its ETH holdings and reinvests staking rewards to compound performance. The product is identified on investment platforms by its ticker: ETHC. ETHC is 100% physically backed by Ethereum held in cold storage with institutional custodians BitGo and Coinbase Custody. Because ETHC holds ETH directly, its value reflects ETH's price adjusted for the 0.10% annual product fee. The product also receives staking rewards earned from Ethereum network validation which are reinvested daily into ETHC, increasing the amount of ETH each NAV unit represents over time.
Why invest
A blockchain with utility
A common criticism of blockchain technology is that it lacks usage. The evidence for Ethereum suggests otherwise. Ethereum has more than eight million active users each month1, with more than 5,000 decentralized applications built on the network2 by approximately 9,000 active developers3. The network has generated over $4 billion in protocol revenue since 20221. Some investors view this depth of on-chain activity as evidence of a network with structural adoption rather than speculative usage alone.
Usage metrics do not guarantee investment value, however. ETH's price has shown no consistent short-term relationship with protocol revenue or active address counts. Investors in ETH are exposed to significant price volatility regardless of underlying network performance.
Engine of the Web3 economy
Ethereum secures the largest share of total value locked (TVL) across decentralized finance (DeFi), stablecoins, tokenized real-world assets, and on-chain applications4 thanks to smart contracts on Ethereum enable anyone to build and deploy decentralized applications without intermediaries. Some investors view Ethereum's position as the largest settlement layer for Web3 activity as a structural advantage with long-term implications for the value of ETH as the network's native payment token.
Institutional innovation
Institutions have started to move financial activity on-chain. BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and JPMorgan are among the institutions actively deploying tokenized funds and stablecoins on the Ethereum network5,6. Some investors view ETH's role in settling these institutional deployments as a potential long-term driver of demand for the token, representing a move beyond developer and crypto-native users toward broader institutional adoption.
Why access Ethereum through an ETP?
For investors who have decided they want Ethereum exposure, the ETP structure addresses the main practical barrier of direct purchase: complexity.
Buying Ethereum directly requires opening a separate crypto exchange account, managing custody of the ETH, and in some cases handling private keys. Losing or mismanaging private keys means losing access to the Ethereum permanently. For a position within a broader investment portfolio, this operational complexity may not be proportionate to the size of the allocation.
ETHC trades through the same brokerage account an investor already uses for equities or other funds. There is no separate crypto account to open and no private keys to manage.
Footnotes
- Token Terminal, October 2025
- DappRadar, October 2025
- Electric Capital Developer Report, October 2025
- DeFiLlama Chain Overview, October 2025
- McKinsey and Company, July 21, 2025
- DeFiLlama Digital Asset Treasuries, October 2025
Underlying Assets
Performance
Past performance is not a reliable indicator of current or future results.
Key Information
Service Providers
Tickers
Frequently asked questions
In Europe, exchange-traded Ethereum products are classified as exchange-traded products (ETPs), not exchange-traded funds (ETFs), a difference in legal structure rather than practical access. European fund regulations prevent standard fund structures from offering single-asset exposure, which is why Ethereum ETPs exist as the equivalent product on European exchanges. While ETPs and ETFs are different legal structures, the buying and holding experience as an investor is no different.
21shares Ethereum Core Staking ETP (ETHC) has an annual product fee: 0.10%.
ETHC can be held through an investment account on platforms that offer regular ETFs and equities. Contact your broker or account provider to confirm eligibility for the account type you intend to use. This is not financial or tax advice.
Whether ETHC can be held within a pension or retirement account depends on the rules in the investor's country of residence and the investment policy of the specific provider. Not all pension providers or schemes permit cryptoasset exchange-traded products. Contact your pension provider directly to confirm eligibility before investing.
The main differences are custody, account type, and ownership. With Ethereum ETPs, the underlying ETH is held by an institutional-grade custodian and the product trades through a standard brokerage account: no separate crypto account needed, no private key management required. Buying ETH directly means holding it through a crypto exchange or managing it personally, outside a standard investment account.
ETHC accrues Ethereum staking rewards to its NAV daily. A portion of the product’s ETH holdings is committed to Ethereum validators, which help secure and validate the network and earn protocol rewards in return. Only a portion of the total ETH held is staked at any time, to maintain sufficient liquidity for redemptions; the proportion depends on fund size, the number of days required to unstake assets, and market conditions. Rewards earned are reinvested into ETHC's NAV through the coin entitlement, meaning each unit of ETHC represents a slightly larger amount of ETH over time as rewards accrue.
Yes. ETHC is 100% physically backed by Ethereum held in cold storage with two institutional custodians: BitGo and Coinbase Custody. The product holds Ethereum directly as the underlying asset and does not use derivatives or synthetic structures to replicate ETH's price.
BitGo and Coinbase Custody serve as custodians for ETHC's Ethereum holdings. Both hold the underlying ETH in cold storage as part of the product's institutional custody structure.
ETHC is directly exposed to Ethereum's price, which can be extremely volatile; investors can lose some or all of their invested amount. Beyond price risk, ETHC carries staking-specific risks: a portion of the ETH is locked with validators during the staking period and cannot be immediately sold; and staking reward rates are variable and may fall to zero.
How to invest
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Underlying Assets
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