IOHK, the lead developer of Cardano blockchain, and Coinbase Custody, the institutional-grade custodian launched by Coinbase Inc., announced a partnership to allow users to stake their ADA tokens. Along with staking, the partnership also allows assets to remain safely locked in a cold storage wallet.
In the announcement emailed to us on Friday, the staking-custody service offered by Coinbase, a first of its kind, will be rolled out in the latter stages of the year when the staking service on Cardano blockchain goes live.
This service will ensure that users of ADA on Coinbase will be able to reap the rewards on Cardano’s proof-of-stake (PoS) network while keeping the digital assets secure in the cold wallet storage facilities. The statement reads:
“Agreements like these are essential to driving widespread adoption of cryptocurrencies, as they allow institutional and large investors to safely and securely manage their funds while also keeping in line with regulatory requirements.”
This is also expected to sway the regulators’ view on the use of cryptocurrencies without the worry of a security breach, which previously provided a barrier to digital assets being widely adopted.
Speaking on the partnership with IOHK, Sam McIngvale, Head of Product, Coinbase Custody, said the exchange tested the Cardano staking testnet protocol with over a thousand stake pools sampled. Sam concluded,
“We are pleased to have been selected as the custodian, and we’re proud to be a full-service, regulated, comprehensively-insured, and 100% offline staking provider in crypto.”
Cardano’s founder and CEO at IOHK, Charles Hoskinson, was equally pleased with the partnership stating the aim is to include the unbanked population and provide a gateway to financial investments to people who have previously were neglected. On the custody- staking services, Hoskinson said:
“This custody agreement allows us to offer the same secure storage solutions that can be found in traditional finance to ADA holders, without sacrificing what makes Proof of Stake blockchains special – being able to participate in the network.”
Cardano’s native token, ADA, is on a sustained rise since the announcement of the launch of the Shelley-era in the coming weeks. IOHK has already deployed the Shelley node on the Cardano mainnet, signaling everything is ready for the hard fork.
The token currently places seventh on Coinmarketcap charts with a total market capitalization of $2.6 billion after an 8 percent surge in price the past 24 hours.