Bitfinex ventures into staking space, offering 10% annual return on three tokens at launch

Cryptocurrency exchange Bitfinex has ventured into the red-hot staking space.

Announcing the news on Tuesday, Bitfinex said users can earn annual rewards of 10% by depositing and holding proof-of-stake tokens on the exchange.

“We are supporting EOS, V.Systems, and Cosmos (ATOM) tokens at launch, with Tezos (XTZ) to follow in May and then all stackable tokens in the coming months,” Bitfinex CTO Paolo Ardoino told The Block.

When asked for rationale for supporting these three tokens at launch, Ardoino said Bitfinex is one of the key EOS block producers and has a “really active” EOS market, while Cosmos and V.Systems are “two of the most popular staking enabled blockchains.” However, data from CoinMarketCap shows that the market capitalization of V.Systems is only about $56 million.

For comparison, EOS has a market capitalization of over $2 billion, while Cosmos has a market capitalization of over $452 million, according to CoinMarketCap.

Bitfinex’s entry into the staking space is the result of customer demand, Ardoino told The Block, adding that the service is available for all clients, including retail and institutional.

Customers’ staked tokens will be held in Bitfinex’s in-house custody solution, per the announcement.

It is worth noting that staking rewards are the same across all the three tokens - i.e., flat 10% per annum, said Ardoino. However, it remains unclear what fees Bitfinex is charging for the service. The Block has reached out to the exchange and will update this story should we hear back.

Bitfinex joins a number of exchanges with its staking service launch, including Coinbase, Binance, and Kraken.

Coinbase and Kraken currently only support Tezos coin and remain the largest operators of Tezos staking validators, as The Block reported last week. Binance, on the other hand, currently supports over 15 coins, including Tezos, EOS, and ATOM.

Kraken is expected to add support for ATOM and DASH coins as well, according to its website.

Not only exchanges, venture firms and custodians also offer staking services, including Fenbushi Capital and BitGo. “Every exchange, custodian, and wallets are going to get into the business of staking,” Tim Ogilvie, founder and CEO of Staked, told The Block in December.