Cardano staking rewards go live on Coinbase exchange

Coinbase has introduced a staking service for Cardano (ADA), which enables users to earn dividends or interest on their token holdings just for depositing and holding the token on the platform.

Coinbase explains that through its newest offering, eligible customers who deposit Cardano (ADA) can opt for the exchange to use the stored assets for staking. The process involves the users delegating their token holdings to those running the blockchain software in exchange for sharing some profit.

The decision was taken in the context of huge interest from retail investors who were open to the idea of earning interest on their crypto assets. The US major crypto venue is also no strange to staking rewards as it already offers the service for holders of Algorand, Cosmos, Ethereum and Tezos.

Meanwhile, Coinbase isn’t the only one platform doing staking as other large crypto exchanges also expand their staking-as-a-service offerings. Additionally, this couldn’t come at a more interesting time for Cardano, which has seen a listing spree as of late.

“While it has been possible for individuals to stake Cardano on their own, or via a delegated staking service, the process can be confusing and complicated. With today’s launch, Coinbase is offering an easy, secure way for any retail user to actively participate in the Cardano network and earn rewards,” the San Francisco exchange explains.

Return to count around ~4%

According to the official announcement, clients can now stake ADA tokens and earn a return on it each every 5–7 days once their initial holding period completes 20–25 days. Following the company’s fees deduction, Coinbase is expecting its staking’s annual return to count around ~3.75%. However, the exchange details that the proposed APR rate is based on the estimated protocol rate, which is subject to change. Customers will be able to see the latest applicable rates directly within their accounts.

Staking, the company explained, enables users to earn dividends or interest on their digital assets for validating transactions and also allows them to vote on changes in the blockchain.

Touted as the ‘next big thing’ after Ethereum, Cardano (ADA) is a blockchain platform built on a proof-of-stake consensus protocol that validates transactions without high gas fees.

A stunning price rally has caused the token to explode from as low as $0.82 earlier this week to around $1.18 following the news of Coinbase offering rewards for that cryptocurrency. Cardano was enjoying a daily surge of 10 percent, with a total market cap of $38 billion and a 24-hour market volume of $3.3 billion, which is shown in the data by CoinMarketCap.