Anchorage Digital will open an option to stake the Ethereum for institutions. This move comes in anticipation of the Ethereum network’s long promised shift from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake protocol.
Anchorage announced its intention to introduce ETH staking a practice of earning rewards for serving as a transaction validator in the Ethereum blockchain for institutions.
The announcement emphasizes Anchorage’s high expectations from the upcoming upgrade of the Ethereum network that will connect its mainnet with the PoS system, coordinated by the Beacon Chain. This feature should allow investors to collect rewards on their ETH in custody by staking with an Anchorage validator. After the Merge, validators would earn not only the block rewards but also the transaction priority fees that were previously going to miners.
The Beacon Chain was launched as a part of Ethereum’s transitory roadmap in December 2020. In June 2022, Ethereum opened the Sepolia testnet, which would begin reaching consensus using PoS rather than PoW. The official merge date on the Ethereum mainnet has been pushed back several times. It is now slated for completion by August 2022, but that date could be delayed further due to a separate delay in the difficulty bomb.