The first marketplace for institutional staking of ETH is now live on MetaMask.
In a blog post on Wednesday, Ethereum infrastructure company ConsenSys announced the launch of an institutional staking marketplace on MetaMask Institutional.
🤝 The marketplace will bring together staking providers, offering simple, one-click staking to institutions. The aim is to facilitate broader institutional participation and boost Ethereum network security by simplifying ETH staking.
Learn more here👇https://t.co/eAkTDf126N
— MetaMask Institutional (@MMInstitutional) March 22, 2023
MetaMask Institutional (MMI) is a multi-custodial web3 wallet targeted at institutions. Like its counterpart retail offering, MMI facilitates token swaps and access to decentralized applications (dApps), tailored to institutions with compliance and monitoring tools on its portfolio dashboard.
The new staking marketplace was developed in partnership with staking providers Allnodes, Blockdaemon and Kiln. It will also integrate ConsenSys’ own staking product, formerly known as Codefi Staking.
In addition to the marketplace, MMI is also launching a new set of tools for its web3 portfolio dashboard, which will go live on March 27. The new features will allow organizations to swap across Ethereum Virtual Machine (EVM) chains, tracking NFTs and managing portfolios across organizations.
“The nuances and complexity of institutional staking can deter companies looking to participate. MetaMask Institutional’s marketplace will level the playing field by bringing together these best-in-class partners to provide institutions with a simple one-click staking experience,” said ConsenSys.
The market for staking ETH has grown considerably since The Merge in September, and even more so after the Shapella upgrade was deployed on all of Ethereum’s testnets over the last two months. At the time of writing, around 17.8 million ETH worth $31 billion has been staked on the deposit contract.
Staking as a service has grown in popularity despite increased scrutiny from U.S. regulators. Earlier this year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ordered crypto exchange Kraken to end its staking services and pay a $30 million fine. The SEC could also bring similar actions to Coinbase after it issued the exchange a Wells Notice on Wednesday – a sign that an enforcement action is imminent.