Everything We Know About Grayscale’s AVAX Staking ETF

Grayscale has officially launched its Avalanche Staking ETF, which trades under the ticker GAVA on the Nasdaq.

Avalanche, and its native token AVAX, were popular among retail traders in 2021, with AVAX reaching an ATH of $146. Since then, the project has since pivoted toward becoming the infrastructure for traditional finance.

It remains a high-speed alternative to Ethereum and offers institutional-grade tools for RWA tokenization. This shift has attracted major partnerships with firms like J.P. Morgan and Citi, setting the stage for the institutional yield products now hitting the public markets.

Grayscale is the world’s largest crypto-focused investment platform and a pioneer in the ETP space. It launched GAVA on Nasdaq following the success of a private version of the ETF that has been operating since August 2024. 

Structured as a Delaware statutory trust, the fund holds AVAX directly to provide spot exposure while staking it to generate rewards. It comes after a shift in regulatory sentiment that now permits staking rewards to be incorporated into exchange-traded products, a move previously disliked by the SEC.

The GAVA ETF is designed to transform Avalanche from a passive asset into a yield-bearing product. According to the prospectus and Grayscale's executives:

• Staking Network: Grayscale intends to stake the AVAX held by the trust to generate rewards through Avalanche’s proof-of-stake network.

• Platform Scale: Avalanche is a multi-chain smart contract platform that supports high-throughput applications, custom blockchains, and enterprise-level configurability.

• Reward Accrual: Staking rewards are not distributed directly to shareholders as dividend income. Grayscale aggregates these rewards (net of an estimated 1.5% to 2.5% management fee) and reinvests them. This means the yield from staking becomes embedded in the ETF, aiming to increase its net asset value (NAV) per share over time.

Tracking GAVA on Arkham

Just like existing spot ETFs, investors can track GAVA’s performance and holdings in real-time via the Arkham Intel Platform. Grayscale is an entity on Arkham, with approximately $16 billion in verified on-chain holdings.

Traders should note that because of T+1 settlement in traditional finance, on-chain evidence of Grayscale's AVAX purchases will typically appear one business day after the initial trade. You can read our full guide into the mechanics of crypto ETFs here.

Despite market volatility, institutional integration into DeFi is expanding. The launch of GAVA is another pivotal moment where institutional yield-seeking and decentralized finance come together.