Grayscale moves to add quarterly cash payouts from ETHE and GSOL staking rewards

Proposed trust changes

According to the plan, Grayscale would amend the trusts so that staking income earned by the funds can be distributed to shareholders on a regular basis. Rather than passing through the digital assets directly, each fund would sell the ETH or SOL received from staking and then distribute the remaining cash proceeds.

The company said these distributions would occur at least once per quarter. The actual amount paid out would not be fixed in advance and would depend on several factors, including the level of staking rewards generated, fund operating expenses, fees and tax treatment.

How the payouts would work

Under the proposed structure, ETHE would sell Ethereum earned through staking, while GSOL would sell Solana earned the same way. Shareholders would receive the net cash left after those sales and after expenses, fees and taxes are accounted for.

Grayscale has not set firm payment dates in the notices tied to the amendments, and there is no guarantee of any specific distribution amount. The first payout timing also remains uncertain. The company indicated that both the launch of distributions and their size will depend on the rewards actually earned, the costs of running the funds, any sales of ETH or SOL tied to the process, and applicable tax rules.

IRS guidance behind the structure

The planned framework follows Internal Revenue Service guidance that permits qualifying trusts to distribute net staking rewards either as digital assets or as cash after selling those assets. The guidance also requires that distributions be made consistently and no less frequently than quarterly.

Grayscale chose the cash-distribution route for both products. That means investors in the two trusts would not receive staking rewards in ETH or SOL directly under the proposal, but instead in cash generated from selling those rewards.

What is known and what is not

The core elements of the proposal are clear: ETHE and GSOL would convert staking rewards into cash and distribute net proceeds to shareholders at least quarterly. Even so, several details remain open. Grayscale has not disclosed a fixed schedule for the first payments, and the company has not indicated what the initial distributions might be.

For now, the proposal sets out a mechanism rather than a promised payout level. The eventual cash distributions, if the amendments are executed as expected, will vary based on staking performance, trust-level costs and the final tax treatment applied to the proceeds.

The move would formalize a way for Grayscale’s Ethereum and Solana funds to pass through staking-related income under an IRS-compliant structure, while leaving the timing and size of payments dependent on fund operations and market-linked reward generation.