The Cboe BZX exchange has filed a Form 19b-4 proposal to allow the 21Shares Core Ethereum exchange-traded fund (ETF) to pledge Ethereum, pending further action from the Securities Exchange Commission (SEC). According to the filing, the exchange plans to amend some of the terms of Eth ETP Amendment 2 to allow Ethereum held by the trust to be staked. Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart pointed out that this is the first ETF to submit an application to the SEC to allow staking. Last year, the SEC approved the 21Shares Core Ethereum ETF, along with ETFs from the likes of BlackRock and Fidelity. Previously, many companies removed the pledge clause from their registration statements before the SEC approved it. Under the leadership of former SEC Chairperson Gary Gensler, the SEC had stated that proof-of-stake (PoS) tokens were securities. However, under the Trump administration, the SEC is expected to take a friendlier stance towards cryptocurrencies and has established a crypto working group with plans to classify some tokens as "non-securities".