Swiss Sygnum Bank Increases Crypto Staking With Cardano

Sygnum Bank introduced crypto staking around two years ago with Tezos staking, in the end expanding the service to Et2 and ICP. The cryptocurrency-friendly bank now continues expanding its crypto services by launching support for Cardano (ADA) staking.

On August 2, 2022, Sygnum announced that the company has grown its bank-grade staking offering with Cardano, enabling clients to generate rewards by staking ADA through the bank’s institutional-grade platform.

ADA now joins Sygnum’s growing crypto-staking portfolio that features three proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols; Tezos, Internet Computer, and soon Ethereum 2.0.

Based on the announcement, staking services make up a crucial part of Sygnum’s platform and are available to the clients via the bank’s eBanking platform. These services are entirely integrated with Sygnum’s banking platform, which is well-designed to offer institutional-grade security by applying isolated wallets, secure private key management, and many other tools.

Staking is the procedure of participating in the authentication of transactions on a POS blockchain in exchange for staking rewards. Contrary to proof-of-work (PoW) networks like Bitcoin (BTC), POS blockchains do not need mining activity and instead heavily rely on users locking up their coins to maintain a functional network.

A leading regulated bank in Switzerland, Sygnum, debuted crypto staking around two years ago, launching the Tezos staking service in November 2021. The bank also confirmed in July 2021 that it would offer Ethereum 2.0 staking on its platform.

The inclusion of Cardano staking on Sygnum will grow exposure to the digital asset to many of the institutional investors. After a tenfold increase in gross revenues in 2021, Sygnum’s institutional client base was nearing 1,000 by early 2022, the company confirmed in January.

Cardano Foundation CEO Frederik Gregaard stated:

“This new offering allows Sygnum’s clients to participate in our ecosystem, where they enjoy a risk-free staking experience without having to transfer the asset nor lock it.”

He also said that Cardano’s architecture also offers retail and institutional clients a distinct opportunity for ADA holders. He noted:

“You always have the power over your ADA.”

Amid the forthcoming Cardano Vasil hard fork, most crypto firms have been focusing on Cardano-focused services. In late July, a leading hardware wallet company Ledger announced the combination of 100 Cardano tokens on its wallet software Ledger Live.

The Cardano Vasil hard fork is anticipated to considerably enhance the Cardano network in terms of scalability and speed, making it highly suitable for smart contracts and decentralized applications (dApps). After it failed to go live in June, the Cardano Vasil hard fork was suspended once more in July. Based on information published by Input Output Global, proceeding with the real fork may take another ‘several weeks.’