Partnership launches before Shanghai Hardfork, which is expected to go live mid 2023 and allow for staked ETH withdrawals
London, Dublin, Singapore, Tokyo - February 1, 2023 – Today B2C2 announces a strategic collaboration with Blockdaemon and StakeWise to be the sole OTC spot liquidity provider for the staked ETH (sETH-h) liquidity token, built on Portara, a permissioned liquid staking solution founded on tried-and-tested technology.
Since The Merge in September, Ethereum (ETH) has shifted from a proof-of-work (PoW) to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism. Rather than employing resource-intensive computers to solve mathematical puzzles, Ethereum’s consensus mechanism now involves delegating ETH on the blockchain for the opportunity to validate transactions and receive more ETH as a reward.
This is known as “staking”. Withdrawals of staked ETH are due to go live in mid 2023 following the Shanghai Hardfork.
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Currently, the staking of ETH is considered inefficient because the assets are ‘locked up’ until the hardfork is complete.
The mechanism of locking up ETH with no withdrawal capability has created the need for liquid staking. Portara addresses this issue by delivering a liquid staking receipt token representing the staked ETH, which allows asset holders to:
- Immediately exit their staked ETH position through the secondary market and avoid any staking or unstaking processing queues, likely taking days, introduced by the Shanghai Hardfork;
- Receive rewards and unlock greater capital efficiency on staked ETH, which can be freely transferred and used as collateral when tokenized; and
- Stake any amount of ETH efficiently, unconstrained by the 32 ETH staking requirement, and without the hassle of having to manage any validator nodes
Furthermore, Portara’s key innovation is that it is the first solution to provide institutions with liquidity on staked ETH that integrates KYC and AML compliance features into its protocol.
These digital receipt tokens are only transferable on-chain between previously KYC/KYB permissioned addresses, which is critical as industry demand for transparency continues to rise.The solution has been conceived, built and delivered by well-established industry leaders.
Blockdaemon provides industry-leading independent blockchain node infrastructure to stake, scale, and deploy nodes with institutional-grade security and monitoring; StakeWise offers the smart contract platform that tokenizes staked ETH deposits and rewards to unlock the liquid staking experience; and B2C2’s global success providing crucial liquidity across market conditions is built on its proprietary crypto-native technology, innovative OTC products and market leading risk management.
“Reliable liquidity across market conditions is essential for a healthy market,” said Nicola White, global CEO, B2C2.
“As the world’s largest crypto liquidity provider, B2C2 is excited to help build support amongst EMEA and APAC clients for an innovative and critically important token.
Not only will Portara help fill a large gap in the market, but it has KYC permissions embedded - an important feature for us and our clients.” “We’re proud to be collaborating with B2C2 and StakeWise to develop leading-edge products and services for the broader financial sector,” said Chris Sharp, CTO of Blockdaemon.
“Liquidity is the lifeblood of any market and the truly innovative approach we have taken with Portara, our liquid staking solution, not only solves the liquidity issues leading up to the Shanghai hard fork but it’s a long term liquidity solution for institutions looking to leverage crypto positions while still receiving rewards. “We are happy to see Blockdaemon, StakeWise and B2C2 uniting to bring liquid staking to institutions,” said Kirill Kutakov, co-founder of StakeWise.
“Portara’s tokenization and compliance features enable the movement of otherwise frozen capital between trusted market participants and unlock its value for the wider Ethereum ecosystem. It is great to have B2C2 supporting the liquidity for this solution going forward.”
Media contacts:
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About Blockdaemon Blockdaemon is the leading independent blockchain node infrastructure to stake, scale, and deploy nodes with institutional-grade security and monitoring. Supporting 60+ cutting-edge blockchain networks in the cloud and on bare metal servers globally, Blockdaemon is used by exchanges, custodians, crypto platforms, financial institutions and developers to connect commercial stakeholders to blockchains. We power the blockchain economy by simplifying the process of deploying nodes and creating scalable enterprise blockchain solutions via APIs, high availability clusters, auto-decentralization and auto-healing of nodes.
About StakeWise StakeWise is a decentralized application that makes staking ETH simple for individuals and organizations. As a liquid staking platform, StakeWise tokens enable users to withdraw staked capital at any time or utilise it in DeFi for additional revenue opportunities. We work with node operators like Blockdaemon, T-Systems, Finoa Consensus Services, and others to bring non-custodial and decentralized staking to over 5,000 customers. Since launch in March 2021, the protocol has attracted over $100mm worth of ETH into staking, becoming the leading staking product on Ethereum. Visit https://stakewise.io for more info.
About B2C2 More than just a liquidity provider, B2C2 is a digital asset pioneer building the ecosystem of the future. The firm has unlocked institutional access to crypto by providing reliable liquidity across market conditions. B2C2’s success is built on crypto native technology and continuous product innovation, making it the partner of choice for diverse institutions globally.
Founded in 2015 and majority owned by Japanese financial group, SBI, B2C2 Ltd is headquartered in the UK, with offices in the US and Japan.B2C2 Ltd is registered in England and Wales under company number 07995888 with its registered office at 86-90 Paul Street, London, EC2A 4NE. B2C2 Ltd is the parent company of the B2C2 group of companies. Products may be provided by different members of the B2C2 group of companies, depending on the jurisdiction of the client and the regulatory status of the product and/or B2C2 group member. Liquid staked ETH product is not currently available to US clients.B2C2 is a registered trademark.
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