EtherFi, a non-custodial and decentralised liquid staking platform, has today announced the successful completion of a $5.3 million funding round headed by North Island Ventures and Chapter One. A total of 35 investors participated in the funding round, which began in January this year and closed this month.
In addition to SV Angel and PI, other investors included Node Capital, Arrington Capital, Maelstom, Venture One Ventures and Purpose Investments. EtherFi plans to use the money to expand its team with additional engineers and seek out new partnerships in addition to the existing ones with node operators.
Staking and provision of liquidity
With liquid staking, individuals can receive incentives by holding cryptocurrency in order to validate a blockchain network. The provision of liquidity increases the value of an existing liquidity pool. The term “liquidity pool” refers to a digital fund pool that is secured via a smart contract. Any participant in a pool can become a liquidity provider by contributing funds while keeping their investment options open. Users in the EtherFi platform can keep their keys in their possession while trusting a node operator with validator duties.
Staking, on the other hand, allows you to put your crypto to work without having to sell it. Staking crypto is temporarily committing tokens to the network in exchange for a payout at the end of the staking period. An Annual Percentage Yield (APY) expresses how much money an investor can anticipate making by staking a given quantity of tokens. However, there are projects that will give tokens as rewards for staking.
With the EtherFi Protocol, users can keep control of their assets without compromising on the network’s decentralised nature. Launching at ETHDenver on March 4th, the protocol’s goal is to have 100,000 ether staked by mid-2023. All validators produced by this system will be presented with unique tokens (NFTs). In addition, EtherFi intends to provide a distributed, non-distributed, non-custodial staking system in the near future.