DeFi
Consensys plans Lido lunch with group staking without minimum
Consensys targets the liquid staking sector with its MetaMask Pooled Staking service.
MetaMask, the popular Ethereum wallet from Consensys, is looking to compete with the liquid restocking industry with the launch of its bulk staking service.
Announced on June 12, MetaMask’s bulk staking service allows users to participate in Ethereum staking with allocations lower than the usual minimum of 32 ETH.
Users’ ETH is staked through validators operated by Consensys, which previously required deposits of at least 32 ETH. Consensys charges a 15% fee on Ethereum rewards generated through bulk staking. Users can also unsubscribe at any time.
“Based on blockchain data, 99% of ETH holders have less than 32 ETH,” Consensys said. “MetaMask’s new solution allows any amount of ETH to be staked to earn rewards for contributing to network security.”
MetaMask Pooled Staking is currently available for a select segment of Metamask, with Consensys working to continue rolling out the service to users over the coming days. Consensys noted that users based in the US and UK will be excluded from the initial product launch, but said it plans to serve these users in the future.
“We are excited to bring our staking solution to many more MetaMask users,” said Matthieu Saint Olive, Senior Product Manager at Consensys.
Consensys hosts over 33,000 validators across multiple regions commanding over 1 million staked Ether. The company claims a validator participation rate of over 99.9% and has not experienced any significant events.
The launch of pooling staking positions Consensys in competition with the main players in liquid staking such as Pool and Rocket Pool.
Similarly, liquid staking allows users to pool assets with a third-party validator in exchange for a fee, with users receiving liquid staking tokens (LST) that can be sold at any time or used in DeFi protocols . LST protocols also allow users to participate in staking without posting the 32 ETH collateral required by staking Ethereum natively on the Beach Chain.
Liquid staking has become a major industry, with Lido, the leading LST protocol, currently dominating 28.6% of all Ether staked, according to Dune Analytics. Coinbase ranks second with 12.9%, followed by liquid restoration protocol EtherFi with 4.6%, Binance and Kiln with 3.3% each, and Renzo with 3%.
Nearly 27.2% of Ethereum’s supply is currently mobilized for staking.
Consensys’ expanded staking service comes despite the company currently battling the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in court.
In April, the company the SEC continued in an effort to get the courts to rule that Ether is a commodity and not a security asset, making the SEC’s attempts to regulate the asset illegal.
The move came two weeks after the regulator issued Consensys with a Wells Notice – which notifies a company that the SEC has completed an investigation into it and typically precedes a formal complaint.
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