Lido, an expert in Ethereum staking, collaborates with Taurus, a Swiss cryptocurrency custody company, so they can bring banks one step closer to enabling their clients to profit from keeping and staking Ethereum tokens.
With this product, businesses lock up their ether (ETH) on the blockchain and receive a digital record of that in the form of another token (stETH) that can be used for trading elsewhere.
Lido’s liquid staking product is currently only accessible to Swiss-based, FINMA-regulated banks partnered with Taurius, which also works with Deutsche Bank and Santander.
“The goal is to build a bridge between the world of digital assets with the world of traditional finance,” stated Victor Busson, the CMO of Taurus in an interview.
He added, “So Taurus is enabling institutions such as banks to access liquid staking solutions, with Lido being the leader in that space. We are seeing more and more demand from our banking clients to offer these kinds of staking services.”
While there is speculation about major financial institutions getting involved in Ethereum staking, little evidence exists due to regulatory uncertainties surrounding rewards from proof-of-stake blockchains.
According to Vassili Lavrov, head of product at Taurus, it is anticipated that European jurisdictions would generally follow suit when it comes to exotic financial products like liquid staking, as the Swiss financial authority FINMA released guidelines on staking cryptocurrency last year.
“One open question that was clarified from a banking law perspective was that when funds are locked up, those funds must be available to clients at any given time,” Lavrov told in an interview.
Marin Tvrdić, Lido’s master of protocol relations, said that although the Lido protocol provides liquid staking stETH tokens for ether deposits, it never takes control of cash, which can be confusing for beginners.
Also Read: Lido Dominates as Ethereum Staking Reaches New Heights
