Foundry Digital Launches Staking Business as Institutions Become Comfortable

Digital Currency Group subsidiary expands services to make proof-of-stake networks more accessible to institutions.

article-image

Source: Blockworks

share

key takeaways

  • Foundry has been staking parent company Digital Currency Group’s assets for more than a year in preparation for the launch
  • Staking will be “a must-offer service” for exchanges, wallet providers, banks and custodians, according to Foundry’s vice president of product development

Digital Currency Group affiliate Foundry Digital is launching a staking business and other services designed for exchanges, banks and other institutions, it announced Wednesday. 

The new business, Foundry Staking, has a range of services covering 20 blockchain networks including Solana, Helium, The Graph, and Horizen, the company said on Wednesday.

Founded in 2019 and based in Rochester, New York, Foundry has operated mainly in proof-of-work networks such as Bitcoin. Proof-of-stake (PoS) is the process of allowing participants to lock in their tokens for a certain amount of time to become eligible to generate the next block in the blockchain and receive staking rewards. 

PoS systems are also very important to its mission of decentralizing infrastructure, Joe Hoffend, vice president of product development at Foundry said.

Foundry has been staking Digital Currency Group’s assets for more than a year and has built up the necessary infrastructure and expertise to confidently offer the services to institutions, Hoffend told Blockworks. 

“We are also seeing institutions becoming more comfortable in how they think about offering staking services to their customers or staking their own digital assets as part of more sophisticated portfolio strategy,” he said. “And we know we can be a trusted resource for those looking to get involved,” Hoffend added.  

Foundry is entering the staking space as PoS protocols have seen massive growth.  

Staked reported last month that the market capitalization of the top 30 PoS protocols totaled $594 billion as of September 30, representing a 65% increase from the second quarter.

Konstantin Richter, founder and CEO of blockchain infrastructure platform Blockdaemon, said last month that he predicts the market size of crypto to expand three to four times due to the evolution around liquid staking, lending and decentralized finance (DeFi). He added that he expects the full merge of Ethereum 2.0, which is transitioning from proof-of-work to PoS, to happen during the first quarter of 2022. 

“For any institution holding client funds, such as exchanges — both traditional finance and crypto-native — wallet providers, banks, and custodians, [staking is] going to be a must-offer service soon, if not already,” Hoffend said. “With venture capital firms and hedge funds, it’s a way to earn rewards on the assets they already hold,” he added. 

Foundry will work with digital asset prime brokerage Genesis, another Digital Currency Group subsidiary, to provide its clients with high-security custody, insight for treasury management, staking strategies and portfolio diversification.

“We will continue adding new staking protocols over time,” Hoofend said, “as well as several adjacent offerings that make sense for both our proof-of-work and proof-of-stake customers.”

Tags

Upcoming Events

Javits Center North | 445 11th Ave

Tues - Thurs, March 18 - 20, 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.

recent research

kamino cover.jpg

Research

Kamino has solidified its position as the leading money market on Solana and is emerging as a DeFi bluechip. Although DeFi competition is fierce, Kamino has kept iterating on its product to provide the best-in-class UX, paired with a robust risk management framework and battle-tested infrastructure. Given the rollout of Kamino Lend V2, the protocol may scale aggressively over the coming months, penetrating previously untapped markets in Solana DeFi.

article-image

Crypto stances vary among candidates vying for Senate seats in Utah, Michigan and Arizona

article-image

Blue Sheets Simple-Earn offers a new route to fixed-rate lending on EVM chains

article-image

True sovereignty isn’t just about financial freedom

article-image

OpenSea co-founder Devin Finzer claims the new OpenSea is being rebuilt “from the ground up”

article-image

A pilot project from Swift, UBS and Chainlink demonstrates how tokenized funds can bridge traditional and crypto rails

article-image

Predictions that the US election will fuel bitcoin’s price are set to be tested