Publicly traded company participates in staking

December 3, 2020 Editor Ethereum 0

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  • Ether Capital Company runs an Ethereum 2.0 validation node and participates in the delegation process to obtain staking rewards.
  • Messari researcher Ryan Watkins predicts increased demand for ETH after the launch of the Beacon Chain.

In a press release, Ether Capital Corporation announced that it has staked funds to the Ethereum 2.0 network. In addition, the company has begun running an Ethereum validator node with the confirmation of the Genesis block yesterday, December 1. As also announced, the company has partnered with the service provider Staked to run the node.

Furthermore, they are preparing to increase their participation. The company has a balance of 32,407 ETH and 2,300 MKR. In addition, they have shares in a crypto exchange called Wyre based in San Francisco, USA. In the statement, the company stated:

Once we see the Ethereum 2.0 blockchain running in a stable fashion over a period of time and are able to fully understand and mitigate applicable risks, Ether Capital intends to make a more substantial commitment of its Ether balance to staking.

Ether Capital has staked the minimum of 32 ETH in the Ethereum 2.0 deposit contract. The new PoS-based mechanism will allow validators to earn rewards for verifying transactions in the Beacon Chain and participate in the network consensus. In this way, they will be able to earn inflationary block rewards. This reward, estimates Ether Capital, is at 16% annual return based on the amount of ETH currently staked. Ether Capital CEO Brian Mossof said:

The launch of Ethereum 2.0 is an exciting and historic milestone in the digital asset space, and we are thrilled to be part of it by running a validator. The transition to staking has been part of Ether Capital’s roadmap since inception and means that Ether holders are now able to generate an Ether-denominated return, or yield, by participating in network validation.

Mythos Capital founder Ryan Sean Adams believes that Ether Capital’s participation in Ethereum 2.0 is the beginning of a trend for institutional investors that will seek to gain exposure to ETH.

New sources of demand for Ethereum (ETH)

On the other hand, Ryan Watkins, a researcher from the Messari, has highlighted the implications that the launch of Eth2 will have for the cryptocurrency. Watkins has affirmed that the “introduction of staking” will give ETH “properties of a capital asset”. Therefore, the asset will have characteristics of bonds and equities. However, Watkins indicated that there is a key difference between ETH and traditional assets:

(…) there is no default risk (nominally) with an Ethereum bond. Ethereum can guarantee to pay out stakers so long as the Ethereum blockchain remains alive because it pays stakers in its own currency. Unlike bonds which have maturity dates at which time bond holders are paid back their principal, stakers can stake their ETH and receive yield forever.

The researcher concludes that the new characteristics of the asset will be “a source of demand” for ETH. Therefore, ETH’s price could be positively impacted in the medium and long term.