PostFinance Unveils Ethereum Staking, Likens It to Fixed-Term Deposits

PostFinance AG, a state-owned bank and one of the largest institutions in Switzerland, has unveiled an innovative move to solidify its mark in the ongoing cryptocurrency bull run.

Switzerland’s PostFinance has rolled out Ethereum (ETH) staking for its customers, making the service available through E-Finance and the PostFinance app, the bank announced on Friday.

Customers can participate in the bank’s new Ethereum staking feature via E-Finance and the PostFinance app. The financial institution also announced launching similar offerings for other tokens “in the near future.”

The move comes as the Swiss bank expands its presence in the cryptocurrency market. PostFinance had already begun offering cryptocurrency trading services to its clients in 2021.

Importance of Staking

In its announcement, PostFinance explained the significance of staking in the functioning of a blockchain network. According to the bank, stakers play a crucial role in maintaining the network’s integrity and adding new blocks to the chain.

“In return, the chain incentivizes stakers with rewards paid with the network’s native coin. In this case, it’s Ether,” the financial institution stated.

The Swiss institution likens staking to fixed-term deposits where people could generate regular passive income with their crypto assets. However, it said the process can be tricky and risky for non-tech-savvy or inexperienced individuals. In addition, customers cannot use their staked assets during the term.

PostFinance further highlighted that Ethereum is the second-largest blockchain network by market capitalization and boasts a vast ecosystem of decentralized applications (dApps), DeFi protocols, NFTs, and metaverse projects.

“The chain has also been credited with popularizing the concept of staking, which involves locking one’s cryptocurrency to the network for a specific period to support blockchain infrastructure,” the bank added.

The bank’s announcement comes as Ethereum has seen strong performance in the past 24 hours. The asset steeply climbed from $3,326.04 to $3,473.10, exhibiting around a 4% bump in its price.

The asset has been significantly leveraging the optimism toward a better crypto regulatory environment in key markets, particularly in the US, as the reigns of the government are about to transition from President Joe Biden back to Donald Trump on Monday.

However, it didn’t take long for it to pull back to $3,265.67 a few hours later, losing roughly 6% of its momentum from today’s top.

Meanwhile, US spot Ethereum exchange-traded funds (ETFs) continued to pale in comparison to their Bitcoin (BTC)-based counterparts at yesterday’s market close.

Amid the strong demand for spot Bitcoin ETFs on Wednesday, which closed with $755.1 million in total net inflows, spot Ether ETFs only closed with $59.7 million in total net inflows. The amount notably made up only around 8% of the total BTC ETF flows during the period.

Despite the somewhat disappointing price actions of Ethereum’s token, it remains the most dominant chain in terms of total value locked. As of Thursday afternoon, the chain displayed a TVL of $66.766 billion, dwarfing Solana‘s (SOL) $9.55 billion and Bitcoin’s $6.791 billion TVL.