Staked, a blockchain infrastructure company and investment manager, is providing institutional investors with a new vehicle in which to invest in Ether (ETH) and earn staking rewards on the Ethereum 2.0 Beacon Chain.
The Staked ETH Trust is now accepting private placement to accredited investors, the company announced Thursday. The Trust allows investors to gain direct exposure to Ether and earn staking rewards on their holdings. The return for staking ETH is expected to be up to 8%.
The trust operates as a traditional investment vehicle that "wraps all the complexity of owning and staking ETH in a simple and reliable structure," the company said.
Tim Ogilvie, CEO of Staked, said the ability to earn staking rewards is one of the biggest draws of cryptocurrency investing. However, outside of early adopters and crypto enthusiasts, the staking process isn’t intuitive to most investors. For institutions, it requires special custodying arrangements, a high degree of technical expertise and the patience to keep their assets locked in smart contracts indefinitely.
Ogilvie explained:
“As the appeal of owning cryptocurrency grows, so too does the desire to earn staking rewards. [...] With the Staked Eth2.0 Trust, we’re dramatically lowering the barriers to entry for more traditional investors. We believe that when staking is made easy for a larger pool of capital, the levels of participation will grow significantly.”
Investors who participate in the fund will incur a cost of 1%, which goes toward custody, legal, accounting and sponsor fees.
Staked has carved out a strong niche within proof-of-stake, or PoS, networks. It currently runs staking infrastructure on over 40 PoS blockchains and supports $4 billion in delegated assets.
The launch of Ethereum 2.0 puts the developer network on track to transition to a PoS model. As Cointelegraph previously reported, Eth2 stakers will not be able to withdraw or transfer their stake until after Phase 1 of the protocol upgrade is rolled out — a process that could take multiple years.
The Eth2 upgrade was confirmed in November 2020, with the Beacon Chain genesis taking place on Dec. 1, 2020.