Market Maker B2C2 Teams With Blockdaemon, Stakewise to Provide Ethereum Staking Liquidity

Crypto market maker B2C2 has teamed up with blockchain infrastructure firm Blockdaemon and staking protocol Stakewise to provide liquidity for staked ether (sETH), according to an emailed announcement shared with CoinDesk.

B2C2 says it will be the sole over-the-counter (OTC) spot liquidity provider for the digital receipt token sETH-h, built on liquid staking platform Portara. Users that have staked ether on the Ethereum blockchain will be able to use sETH-h tokens to exit their positions or earn rewards elsewhere in the crypto ecosystem.

Liquid staking is the process whereby users are given derivative tokens in exchange for their staked digital assets, in this case ether (ETH). The derivative tokens can then be used for other purposes, while the ETH remains locked in the proof-of-stake system. Ahead of Ethereum's Shanghai upgrade, which is set to take place in March and will allow ETH stakers to withdraw their tokens, interest in liquid staking has been growing as users have sought ways of exploiting the ETH currently locked on the network.

The liquid staking market is dominated by decentralized finance (DeFi) app Lido, in which users had locked $7.8 billion as of the middle of last month. Its native token, LDO, more than doubled in value in January to $2.08.

B2C2 says the key innovation offered by Portara is that of integrating know-your-customer (KYC) and anti-money laundering (AML) compliance into the process. The sETH-h tokens users receive in exchange for their staked ether are only transferrable on-chain between addresses that have been subject to KYC checks.

Read more: Index Coop Introduces Index for Diversified Liquid Ethereum Staking