Coinbase Cloud, Figment Back New Liquid Staking Protocol

New offering developed by Alluvial is designed to meet compliance and security standards for institutions

article-image

Blockworks exclusive art by axel rangel

share

key takeaways

  • Alluvial’s founding team includes former executives at Figment, Kiln and Index Cooperative
  • New protocol will require contributors to enable embedded KYC and AML checks

Crypto exchange Coinbase’s cloud division is working with Figment to support the founders and operators building what it calls the first enterprise-grade liquid staking protocol. 

The news was revealed Tuesday during Blockworks’ Permissionless event in West Palm Beach. Software development firm Alluvial is building the new protocol, which the company ultimately intends to be governed by a decentralized autonomous organization (DAO). 

Liquid staking on Ethereum has grown from less than 1% market share in January 2021 to more than 30%, according to Dune Analytics data

“There has been growing demand amongst institutions and enterprises that want to access liquid staking but haven’t had a solution that meets compliance and security standards,” Coinbase Cloud Senior Manager Mara Schmiedt told Blockworks. “With Alluvial, we are enabling that access and are focused on unlocking the next wave of adoption and financial innovation in the space.”

Coinbase acquired blockchain infrastructure platform Bison Trails in January 2021 to become the foundational team and platform of Coinbase Cloud. The business offers Web3 application programming interfaces (APIs), services, and infrastructure for software builders.

Figment is focused on offering staking and application layer solutions for token holders and developers building on Web3 technology. The firm raised $110 million in a Series C round in December, bringing its post-money valuation to $1.4 billion.

Alluvial is led by Matt Leisinger, former head of liquid staking products at Figment; Nicolas Maurice, the former chief technology officer of staking-as-a-service platform Kiln; and Mike Taormina, former head of institutional business at the Index Cooperative.

Liquidity is key to unlock the next chapter of financial innovation in Web3, the companies said.

The non-custodial protocol will allow users to stake their tokens and receive receipt tokens that prove ownership of the staked tokens. They can then use those receipt tokens to participate in the broader Web3 economy.  

It will require all contributors to enable embedded know your customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) checks.

Coinbase Cloud and Figment plan to perform staking services on the network and run validators with clients across regions and cloud providers. Other security-focused validator operators will be added to the protocol over time.


Get the news in your inbox. Explore Blockworks newsletters:

Tags

Upcoming Events

Old Billingsgate

Mon - Wed, October 13 - 15, 2025

Blockworks’ Digital Asset Summit (DAS) will feature conversations between the builders, allocators, and legislators who will shape the trajectory of the digital asset ecosystem in the US and abroad.

Industry City | Brooklyn, NY

TUES - THURS, JUNE 24 - 26, 2025

Permissionless IV serves as the definitive gathering for crypto’s technical founders, developers, and builders to come together and create the future.If you’re ready to shape the future of crypto, Permissionless IV is where it happens.

Brooklyn, NY

SUN - MON, JUN. 22 - 23, 2025

Blockworks and Cracked Labs are teaming up for the third installment of the Permissionless Hackathon, happening June 22–23, 2025 in Brooklyn, NY. This is a 36-hour IRL builder sprint where developers, designers, and creatives ship real projects solving real problems across […]

recent research

Research Report Templates.png

Research

The convergence of DePIN and energy generation aims to address modern grid challenges by incentivizing distributed generation.

article-image

However, they noted there’s now an increased risk that unemployment and inflation will rise in the coming months. 

article-image

The network’s most ambitious upgrade since the Merge brings validator streamlining, smart account UX and doubled blobspace to Ethereum

article-image

Debate over extra Bitcoin use cases has returned, two years on from Ordinals

article-image

Altcoin season may be on a permanent pause as the market matures and paths grow more selective

article-image

Today’s blockchains are more like nervous systems without a brain — wiring without will

article-image

A number of blockchains make use of the Solana Virtual Machine