In a Thursday filing, the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) has asked the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to add staking to the Bitwise Ethereum ETF (ETHW). 

The rule change would remove impediments to an open market and protect investors. "The net beneficiaries are not only validators, or those on behalf of whom they stake ether, but also the Ethereum blockchain itself…" the filing said. 

Last month, the NYSE also filed a proposal to introduce staking for Grayscale's Ethereum ETF. 

Ethereum staking, which was introduced more than four years ago with the launch of the Beacon Chain, makes it possible to lock up their ETH tokens in order to receive rewards. 

During a recent appearance at the Digital Asset Summit, BlackRock's Robert Mitchnick stated that Ethereum ETFs had underperformed due to the absence of staking. He has described staking as the "next step" in the evolution of such products. 

That said, Mitchnick has noted that enabling ETF staking is a sophisticated process that involves "complex challenges." It will not happen instantly just because of the crypto-friendliness of the new SEC administration. 

In December, Bitwise launched a Solana exchange-traded product (ETP) with staking in Germany.