Within two weeks, decentralised stablecoin issuer Frax Finance will make its liquid staking technology on Ethereum publicly available.
The launch will enable users to stake ether (ETH) and get Frax Ether (frxETH), a liquid derivative token designed to unleash the value of staked tokens. The derivative will reflect ether’s price and be freely transferable on other DeFi protocols.
Frax Ether is a liquid ETH staking derivative. Image: Frax Finance
“Everything will be fully available publicly within two weeks, barring anything unforeseen, but the full system is already live, and is already proposing blocks,” Frax core developer Jack Corddry told The Block.
Frax has completed a security audit of its liquid staking token in preparation for its mainnet launch. The project has also installed a Curve pool, allowing frxETH to be exchanged for ETH with minimal or no slippage.
Frax Finance’s stablecoin relies on collateral and algorithmic techniques to maintain a 1:1 peg with the U.S. dollar. Dollar. Its stablecoin is partially supported by hard collateral, notably USD Coin (USDC), and partially by FXS, Frax Finance’s native governance token.
Frax’s decentralised liquid staking product will compete with protocols like Lido Finance and RocketPool. The Frax team stated, “Get ready for the most interesting ETH liquid staking derivative released by a major stablecoin issuer.”
Additionally, Frax Finance operates the decentralised exchange Fraxswap and the financing platform Fraxlend.
How will liquid staking function for Frax?
First, customers stake their ETH using Frax ETH Minter, a function that mints the liquid derivative related to the deposited ETH’s underlying value.
Frax will leverage its customers’ ETH to generate and distribute a staking income via spinning Ethereum validators. By allowing individuals to delegate their assets to the protocol, this method aims to simplify the process of establishing validators.
Users must swap the first derivative token (frxETH) for Staked Frax Ether (sfrxETH), a second token that will accrue staking yield from Frax’s Ethereum validators.
This second token will earn interest and increase in value over time relative to ether. The interest can be collected by the conversion of sfrxETH to frxETH.