On April 23, 2026, GSR — one of the most established crypto market makers in the world — listed its first exchange-traded fund on Nasdaq. The fund, called the GSR Crypto Core3 ETF and trading under the ticker BESO, holds Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana in a single actively managed product, with staking rewards built directly into the structure. It is the first U.S. ETF to combine multi-asset crypto exposure with staking access — and it signals a meaningful shift in how Wall Street is packaging digital assets for mainstream investors.
What BESO Actually Is — and Why the Structure Matters
BESO is not a passive index fund. It is an actively managed product, which means GSR’s team makes ongoing decisions about portfolio allocation rather than simply tracking a fixed benchmark. The fund carries a 1% annual management fee — higher than the ultra-low fees that have become standard for spot Bitcoin and Ethereum ETFs, but consistent with the pricing of actively managed alternatives in traditional finance. Framework Digital Advisors serves as the investment adviser, while GSR handles the trading and rebalancing operations.
The rebalancing happens weekly, using what GSR describes as “research-driven signals designed to pursue additional returns above a simple equal-weighted benchmark.” In plain terms: the fund will shift its weights between Bitcoin, Ethereum, and Solana based on market conditions, rather than holding each at a fixed 33% forever. That active management component is what separates BESO from a simple basket product — and it is also what justifies the higher fee.
The staking integration is the other distinguishing feature. For Ethereum and Solana — both Proof-of-Stake networks — the fund is structured to accumulate staking rewards on eligible assets. This means investors in BESO are not just getting price exposure to three of the largest crypto assets; they are also getting a share of the protocol-native yield those assets generate. Bitcoin, as a Proof-of-Work network, does not offer staking rewards, so its contribution to the fund’s yield is purely price-based.
GSR’s Strategic Bet — and Why the Timing Is Deliberate
GSR CEO Xin Song framed the launch as a natural extension of the firm’s decade-long work building trading infrastructure, liquidity systems, and risk management capabilities in crypto markets. “Core3 is an extension of that work into a format that retail and institutional investors can access through a standard brokerage account,” Song said. That framing matters: GSR is not positioning BESO as a crypto-native product for existing holders. It is positioning it as an entry point for investors who want crypto exposure without the complexity of managing wallets, staking positions, and multi-asset portfolios themselves.
Andy Baehr, GSR’s Managing Director of Asset Management, put it more directly: “What to own, how to earn yield while you hold, and how to be positioned as markets evolve.” That sentence describes the three questions that most crypto investors struggle with, and BESO is designed to answer all three in a single product. The “what to own” question is answered by the BTC-ETH-SOL basket. The “how to earn yield” question is answered by the staking integration. The “how to be positioned as markets evolve” question is answered by the active management and weekly rebalancing.
The timing is not accidental. GSR has been expanding aggressively in 2026. In March, the firm acquired Autonomous and Architech to grow its token advisory business. Earlier in April, it invested in Libeara, a tokenization platform backed by SC Ventures. BESO is the consumer-facing product that sits on top of that infrastructure buildout — the thing that lets ordinary investors benefit from GSR’s institutional-grade crypto operations without needing to understand any of the underlying mechanics.
The ETF Market Context — From Single-Asset to Multi-Asset
To understand why BESO matters, it helps to look at where the U.S. crypto ETF market has been and where it is going. Spot Bitcoin ETFs launched in January 2024 and drew some of the fastest inflows on record for new fund products. Spot Ethereum ETFs followed in mid-2024, and by Q1 2026, Grayscale’s Ethereum Staking Mini ETF alone had attracted $337 million in inflows. The market has been moving steadily from single-asset exposure toward more complex, yield-bearing structures — and BESO is the logical next step in that progression.
Bloomberg ETF analyst James Seyffart noted that basket ETFs are likely to become one of the fastest-growing categories in crypto investment products over the next two years. He specifically highlighted that BESO will attempt to outperform a simple equal-weighted index of all three assets — a meaningful benchmark, since an equal-weighted BTC-ETH-SOL portfolio has significantly outperformed Bitcoin alone over most rolling 12-month periods in the past three years.
| ETF Type | Example | Assets | Staking | Management Style | Annual Fee |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Spot Bitcoin ETF | iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) | BTC only | No | Passive | 0.12–0.25% |
| Spot Ethereum ETF | iShares Ethereum Trust (ETHA) | ETH only | No | Passive | 0.12–0.25% |
| Staked ETH ETF | BlackRock ETHB / Grayscale Mini | ETH only | Yes (ETH) | Passive | 0.15–0.25% |
| Multi-Asset Staking ETF | GSR BESO (Core3) | BTC + ETH + SOL | Yes (ETH + SOL) | Active (weekly rebalance) | 1.00% |
The SEC’s historical caution around multi-asset strategies and staking features makes BESO’s approval notable. The regulatory environment has shifted considerably since 2024, and the fact that a product combining three assets with staking access cleared the SEC is a signal that the agency’s approach to crypto ETF structures has meaningfully evolved. For context on how Ethereum’s regulatory status has developed, our coverage of the CLARITY Act and Ethereum’s digital commodity classification covers the legal framework in detail.
Why Ethereum Is the Key Asset in This Structure
Of the three assets in BESO, Ethereum is the one that makes the staking integration most compelling. Bitcoin offers no yield. Solana’s staking rewards are higher in percentage terms — typically 6–8% annually — but Solana carries more protocol risk and a shorter institutional track record. Ethereum’s 2–4% staking APY sits in a sweet spot: meaningful enough to add real value to the fund’s returns, but conservative enough not to introduce excessive smart contract or slashing risk.
The staking integration also aligns with the broader institutional trend toward treating ETH as a yield-bearing asset rather than a purely speculative one. Spot Ethereum ETFs have recorded 10 consecutive days of net inflows as of April 24, totaling $590 million. That sustained demand reflects a market that is increasingly comfortable with ETH as a portfolio allocation — not just a trade. BESO packages that allocation alongside Bitcoin and Solana in a format that requires no technical knowledge from the investor. For more on how ETF flows have been shaping Ethereum’s market structure, see our analysis of Ethereum ETFs posting their best weekly inflows since January 2026.
“What to own, how to earn yield while you hold, and how to be positioned as markets evolve. That’s what Core3 is built around.”
Andy Baehr, Managing Director of Asset Management, GSR
The fund’s active management component also gives GSR the flexibility to increase Ethereum’s weighting during periods when on-chain fundamentals are particularly strong — or reduce it when risk signals deteriorate. That dynamic allocation is something passive ETFs cannot do, and it is a genuine differentiator for investors who believe active management in crypto can add value over a static benchmark.
The Questions BESO Still Has to Answer
Not everyone is convinced. The 1% management fee is the most obvious point of friction. In a market where spot Bitcoin ETFs charge as little as 0.12% annually, paying 1% for active management is a significant premium. The implicit promise is that GSR’s research-driven rebalancing will generate enough outperformance to justify that cost — but active management in crypto has a mixed track record, and the fee drag compounds over time.
There is also the question of how the staking rewards are handled operationally. Staking on Ethereum requires locking ETH in validators, which introduces a withdrawal delay. If the fund needs to rebalance or meet redemptions quickly, the staked portion of the ETH allocation may not be immediately liquid. GSR has not publicly detailed how it manages this liquidity mismatch, and it is a structural question that sophisticated investors will want answered before committing capital.
The Solana inclusion also raises questions for some institutional investors. Solana has experienced network outages and has a validator set that is more concentrated than Ethereum’s. Including it in a product marketed as a “core” crypto allocation implies a level of institutional-grade reliability that Solana is still in the process of establishing. For investors who want Ethereum exposure specifically — rather than a basket — products like BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF may remain more appropriate. Our coverage of BlackRock’s staked Ethereum ETF and its monthly reward structure covers that alternative in detail.
Final Thoughts
BESO is a genuinely novel product in the U.S. ETF market. It is the first actively managed multi-asset crypto ETF with staking access, launched by a firm with deep institutional credibility in crypto markets, on the world’s most prestigious exchange for technology listings. Those are not small things. The product solves a real problem for a specific type of investor: someone who wants diversified crypto exposure, wants to earn yield on that exposure, and wants a professional team making the allocation decisions.
Whether BESO attracts meaningful assets under management will depend on two things: whether GSR’s active management actually outperforms a simple equal-weighted benchmark over time, and whether the 1% fee is a dealbreaker for the institutional allocators it is targeting. The first question will take years to answer. The second will become clear in the fund’s first few months of flows data.
What is already clear is that the direction of travel in crypto ETFs is toward more complex, yield-bearing, multi-asset structures. BESO is the most ambitious version of that trend to reach the market so far. Whether it succeeds or struggles, it has moved the conversation forward — and that matters for everyone tracking how traditional finance is absorbing the crypto asset class.
