CoinShares Launches Polkadot, Tezos ETPs With Staking Rewards

Germany-listed products designed to share staking rewards with investors

article-image

Blockworks Exclusive art by Axel Rangel

share

key takeaways

  • The Polkadot and Tezos products are designed to share staking rewards of 5% and 3%, respectively, per year
  • Products join four other physically backed Coinshares ETPs that invest in bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and XRP

CoinShares has launched a pair of physically backed crypto exchange-traded products (ETPs) designed to share staking rewards with investors. 

The digital assets investment firm’s Physical Staked Polkadot ETP and Physical Staked Tezos ETP is on Germany’s Xetra exchange.

Proof-of-stake blockchains like Polkadot and Tezos require holders to stake their cryptocurrency to add new blocks to the blockchain — which triggers a crypto reward once transactions are validated. 

A physically backed crypto ETP traditionally has a management fee and a coin entitlement — the latter refers to the number of digital assets the ETPs are entitled to hold, according to Townsend Lansing, CoinShares’ head of product.

“Typically, that entitlement would decline over time, as the issuer realizes the management fee,” Lansing told Blockworks in an email. “However, for these products, that entitlement will increase over time, [and are] accrued daily.”

CoinShares plans to share staking rewards by reducing the management fee from 1.5% to zero and by adjusting the coin entitlement daily to share annualized staking awards of 3% for Tezos and 5% for Polkadot. 

Investors have the option to redeem ETP shares directly for the blockchains’ native assets, DOT or tez. The staked coins do not move from Komainu — the custodian — and the ETP is 100% physically backed at all times.

Though institutional investors mainly consider products focused on bitcoin and ether, CoinShares’ self-directed customers have become increasingly interested in alternative coins, firm executives told Blockworks last month.

The two products are now a part of CoinShares’ lineup of physical ETPs, which launched in January. The four other offerings in the ETP range invest in bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), litecoin (LTC) and XRP – the native digital asset of the XRP Ledger.

The current physical ETP rosters, which have about $475 million of combined assets under management,  saw outflows of $14 million the first three weeks of 2022, according to a Monday CoinShares report. 

Overall, digital asset investment products notched inflows totalling roughly $14 million last week, the report added, breaking five straight weeks of outflows. The inflows came during a period of price weakness, suggesting that investors viewed the period as a buying opportunity.

The CoinShares Physical Bitcoin ETP, which launched in 2015, was the first product of its kind in Europe.

“We are excited to push the industry forward again with these staked ETP launches,” CoinShares Chief Revenue Officer Frank Spiteri said in a statement. “We believe that over time this will become investors’ preferred structure for ETPs tracking digital assets based on proof-of-stake blockchains.”


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

  • Blockworks Daily: The newsletter that helps thousands of investors understand crypto and the markets, by Byron Gilliam.
  • Empire: Start your morning with the top news and analysis to inform your day in crypto.
  • Forward Guidance: Reporting and analysis on the growing intersection of crypto and macroeconomics, policy and finance.
  • 0xResearch: Alpha directly in your inbox. Market highlights, data, degen trade ideas, governance updates, token performance and more.
  • Lightspeed: Built for Solana investors, developers and community members. The latest from one of crypto’s hottest networks.
  • The Drop: For crypto collectors and traders, covering apps, games, memes and more.
  • Supply Shock: Tracking Bitcoin’s rise from internet plaything worth less than a penny to global phenomenon disrupting money as we know it.
Tags

Upcoming Events

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

recent research

tg trading bot report graphic.png

Research

Telegram trading bots have found their primary niche in highly speculative token launches and retail-dominated memecoin markets, with many features specifically tailored to token sniping and copy-trading strategies.

article-image

With a friendlier regulatory outlook and the airdrop flow being stemmed, some are looking to how new native tokens can become valuable assets

article-image

The recent action paints an uncertain picture for future monetary policy moves

article-image

Is the finance world becoming “more liquid”? Experts give their takes as TradFi players consider new moves

article-image

Ethereum core developers debated a major overhaul of the EVM, weighing complexity and benefits

article-image

Top Committee Democrat Sen. Elizabeth Warren in her opening statement accused Atkins of “helping billionaire CEOs like Sam Bankman-Fried”