SEBA Bank launches Ethereum staking for institutional investors

In the latest Ethereum news, SEBA Bank, a global crypto lender based in Switzerland, will support Ethereum staking for institutional clients after the Ethereum merge, the bank said in a press release on Wednesday.

The service will enable institutional grade clients to access and earn from staking rewards on the Ethereum proof-of-stake chain.

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Apart from Ethereum, other PoS protocols in the SEBA staking product suite are Polkadot and Tezos.

Trusted counterparty

To help its clients, the bank will tap into its staking management platform to offer a fully integrated solution, with customers earning rewards on a monthly basis. The solution will also provide for adjustable lock up periods post-merge.

Mathias Schütz, SEBA Bank’s Head Technology and Client Solutions said in a statement that supporting staking for ETH ahead of the highly anticipated merge allows institutional investors the opportunity to help secure the Ethereum network via collaboration with “a trusted counterparty.”

According to SEBA Bank, its ETH staking service comes amid increased demand from institutions around digital assets staking and decentralised finance (DeFi).

As our analyst Dan Ashmore recently noted in this article, the upcoming merge could see Ethereum offer DeFi sector’s first “risk-free” rate reference.

Ethereum’s merge expected next week

As reported earlier, Ethereum continues to inch closer to its mainnet PoS launch – with Tuesday’s successful Bellatrix upgrade pushing the leading smart contracts platform nearer to the event.

After its latest upgrade, the Ethereum consensus layer is “merge-ready” and will complete with the next upgrade – Paris – which will see the Beacon Chain merge with the proof-of-work mainnet to officially transition Ethereum to a PoS chain.

The merge is expected around 15 September.