Kraken says its customers have staked more than $1 billion in crypto via its service

Some $1 billion in crypto -- much of it in the form of ETH and other major cryptocurrencies -- has been staked by the customer base of exchange service Kraken, the company said Wednesday.

As of the time of writing, 307,904 ETH is being staked via Kraken -- an amount worth roughly $360 million. A spokesperson for the exchange told The Block in an email that 58 million DOT and 45.5 million XTZ have also been staked, equating to about $578 million and $120 million, respectively.

During 2020, according to the firm, Kraken's staking service paid out as much as $27 million in rewards to stakers.

"Whereas three years ago, holders were mainly interested in securing short-term gains, many are now confident locking-up tokens to earn passive income. Why? Conviction is growing in the longevity of crypto-assets as a respectable new asset class," Jeremy Welch, Kraken's vice president of product, said in a press statement.

As previously reported by The Block's Yogita Khatri, exchanges have emerged as significant validating forces on Eth2, with Kraken and Binance accounting for roughly 19% as of late last month. Coinbase has also signaled that it plans to offer an Eth2 staking service sometime in early 2021.

That growth has come in the wake of the so-called Phase 0 launch of Eth2, which will be developed and built upon over a multi-year period.