Staking as an Asset Class? This Swiss Institutional Fund Is Jumping In
While institutional investors around the world are just getting their heads around bitcoin (BTC, +5.09%), asset managers in crypto-friendly Switzerland are heading into staking on next-generation blockchain networks.
Announced Friday, Zurich-based investment firm Tavis Digital has partnered with Singapore-based Persistence, a bridge for traditional firms into undiscovered realms such as token staking and decentralized finance (DeFi). Tavis Digital is a spin-off of Tavis Capital, an asset manager regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) with about $1.07 billion in assets under management.
Nimble and financially sophisticated countries like Switzerland and Singapore are ahead of the pack when it comes to cryptocurrency and its applications.
“We white-label our services to institutional clients and stakeholders who do not know how to run a validator node both on the software side as well as on the hardware side,” said Tushar Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Persistence. “It’s not a trivial thing to run a validator node, you need almost close to 100% uptime otherwise you get slashed.”
Persistence enables investors to get staking rewards (akin to interest) by participating in proof-of-stake (PoS) networks such as Cosmos, Polygon (formerly Matic), NEAR, SKALE, Terra and others. The tie-up with Tavis is a demonstration that some traditional funds are going beyond merely adding bitcoin as an asset class.
Fresh fields
PoS systems eschew the Bitcoin blockchain’s energy-intensive method of ordering transactions so coins cannot be spent twice and propose to solve the “nothing at stake” problem by apportioning some skin in the game. Purchasing and holding tokens on a blockchain earns rewards for validating the order of transactions, but can result in losses (known as “slashing”) if a validating node goes offline or is unresponsive.
Direct participation in staking networks and all the validation node husbandry that goes with it is a complex business, and Persistence provides a complete handholding for firms that don’t want to spend time and money setting up dedicated blockchain teams. This hosting service earns Persistence about 1% on the assets being staked. The firm has some $260 million in assets under delegation, mostly on Cosmos.
“With backdrop of most parts of western Europe now at 0% interest rates, or negative interest rates in certain jurisdictions, there is an increased demand from institutional folks to generate fixed income yields,” said Aggarwal, adding:
Recommended News
-
Rep. Gaetz of Blockchain Caucus Faces Investigation for Sexual Misconduct: Report
U.S. lawmaker Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.), a member of the Congressional Blockchain Caucus who has put his name to a handful of pro-blockchain bills and letters, is under investigation by the Department of Justice, which is looking into whether he had a sexual relationship with a minor, the New York Times reported Tuesday. According to the report, which cited “three people briefed on the matter,” Gaetz is also being investigated over whether or not he violated federal sex trafficking laws. He allegedly may have paid for a 17-year-old to travel with him. The investigation is part…
-
Staking as an Asset Class? This Swiss Institutional Fund Is Jumping In
While institutional investors around the world are just getting their heads around bitcoin (BTC, -1.43%), asset managers in crypto-friendly Switzerland are heading into staking on next-generation blockchain networks. Announced Friday, Zurich-based investment firm Tavis Digital has partnered with Singapore-based Persistence, a bridge for traditional firms into undiscovered realms such as token staking and decentralized finance (DeFi). Tavis Digital is a spin-off of Tavis Capital, an asset manager regulated by the Swiss Financial Market Supervisory Authority (FINMA) with about $1.07 billion in assets under management. Nimble and financially sophisticated countries like Switzerland and…
-
Exploit Network closes $1.5 million funding round
On March 19, Exploit Network, a multi-chain privacy payment protocol, closed a $1.5 million initial round of funding from BlockCapital, HashFund and seven other institutions and listed companies. The team plans to use the funding to hire more technical engineers to build multi-chain interoperable application scenarios. Exploit Network is currently in its early stages and the team’s founder, Cora, was previously with DataCom, a leading IT company in New Zealand, working on network engineering architecture. Cora is also a core member of the local Auckland-based Geeks Anonymous group and has…
-
Ban, Minister Says
India’s Minister of State for Finance Anurag Thakur said the government needs to study national security risks posed by virtual currencies before making any decision on their legality. “We understand there is immense interest in these virtual currencies, but we also need to look at national security and security of Indians and individuals,” Thakur said while addressing an event organized by Entrepreneurs’ Organisation Punjab on Saturday. Thakur took a jab at the high price volatility of cryptocurrencies, saying that these coins often chart 10x price moves in weeks. “That doesn’t happen in…
-
Gold farming studios’ new favorite: Savior!
Studio: Orchha Guest: Jaipur (Orchha’s partner) Could you tell us what this studio is? Jaipur: Orchha is a game society focused on the metaverse ecosystem. It helps investors pool assets and bet on NFT games to make profits and share them with the community of supporters. The current focus of Orchha is gaming NFTs. It offers hardware and software technical support and is a pioneer in in-game earnings. It was established in India and will incorporate North American and Eastern European communities the team members come from. Why was this…
-
If Bitcoin Starts Closing Below the 50-Day SMA It May Mean Deeper Pullback Ahead
Bitcoin fell sharply on Sunday, dipping well below the 50-day simple moving average (SMA) support for the first time in six months. While the decline looks typical of a bull market correction, it could be extended further if prices find acceptance under the 50-day SMA, according to one analyst. “The loss of [bullish] momentum is only short-term in nature, but we would view consecutive closes below the 50-day SMA as a reason to move to the sidelines,” Katie Stockton, technical analyst and managing partner of Fairlead Strategies, told CoinDesk in…
-
CoinFans (bi-fans.com) Shenzhen Digital Mining Summit 2021 successfully concluded
On the afternoon of March 17, Beijing time, CoinFans (bi-fans.com) held the “2021 Digital Mining Summit” entitled “Win-win for the future” in Shenzhen. At the meeting, CoinFans CEO James Cao and many other executives attended the meeting. In addition, more than 50 industry elites, customers and strategic partners, including BTC.COM CEO Zhuang Zhong, Antpool co-founder Tian Xin, Shanghai Wayi co-founder Li Peicai, and Guihua Technology co-founder Xiao Guihua, gathered at the summit. At this 500-person summit, James Cao and other well-known companies delivered live speeches and shared the…
-
2021 Global Distributed Cloud Storage Summit debuts at the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa
As stated in global media reports, the theme video of 2021 Global Distributed Cloud Storage Summit debuted at the world’s tallest building, Burj Khalifa, attracting widespread global attention. The 2021 Global Distributed Cloud Storage Summit will be held on September 15, 2021 at the Dubai-Abu Dhabi National Exhibition Center. The summit is supported by the UAE Royal Family and the UAE government, and will bring together thousands of industry elites from dozens of different countries to discuss the opportunities, challenges and future prospects of distributed cloud storage technology. The three-day…
-
Coinbetter: Transcript of the ETHDenver Conference
The 10-day ETHDenver2022 has ended on February 20th . ETHDenver is the world’s largest Web3 and blockchain conference, bringing blockchain projects and companies from around the world to Colorado’s capital every year for days of hackathons, project builds, keynotes and panel discussions, and exchanges. In addition to Ethereum itself, the event also invited a group of chain-agnostic projects, including Alogrand, Near, Polygon, and Polkadot. Notably, this year’s attendees included state Jared Polis, South African entrepreneur (and Elon’s brother) Kimbal Musk, and Ethereum co-inventor Vitalik Buterin also made a surprise appearance. This…
-
A Comprehensive Insurance Platform – Blockchain Insurance Global
Our global economy has grown steadily in recent years, and an increase in income levels has driven the growth of consumer demand. Among them, the demand for health protection has seen a significant increase. However, the traditional insurance model is cumbersome, delivering a poor experience for users. A transformation and upgrade of the industry is imperative. In 2020, an insurance platform that relies on blockchain technology, AI and big data started to receive attention from the mass markets. The aptly-named Blockchain Insurance Global (BIG for short) has created a new insurance platform, and has achieved a growth rate of 53% in 2020, reigning as the growth leader of the industry. By empowering the insurance…
