Corporate Interest in Crypto Staking Grows as Firms Seek Passive Income

According to Cointelegraph, public companies and crypto-focused treasury firms are increasingly exploring staking as a means to generate passive income. Sharplink Gaming, recognized as the world's second-largest corporate Ether (ETH) holder, has reported generating 10,657 Ether, valued at $33 million, through its staking operations over the past seven months. This strategy involves investors committing their tokens to secure proof-of-stake blockchain networks, thereby earning passive income. At current market prices, Sharplink's staking activities have added approximately $1.4 million in value for shareholders over the past week. The company reiterated its commitment to its strategy, stating, "Our thesis remains unchanged: 100% ETH and 100% staked," in a post on X. Sharplink has further expanded its yield-focused strategy by deploying an additional $170 million in Ether into the Ethereum Layer-2 scaling solution Linea, aiming to enhance restaking rewards. This approach combines native Ethereum staking returns with incentives from Linea and related protocols, safeguarded by Anchorage Digital Bank, Sharplink's qualified custodian. BitMine Immersion Technologies, the largest corporate Ether holder, has also increased its staking activity, with 936,512 Ether staked, valued at approximately $2.87 billion as of Thursday. In comparison, Sharplink has staked a total of 864,840 Ether, representing its entire holdings, acquired at an average price of $3,609 per token. Meanwhile, more institutions are entering the Ether staking arena, including investment banking giant Morgan Stanley, which has filed to launch a spot Ether exchange-traded fund to capture additional staking yield. The increasing participation of institutions in cryptocurrency staking indicates a shift from a niche decentralized finance (DeFi) experiment to a yield-generating strategy employed by corporations. This trend underscores the growing acceptance and normalization of crypto staking yields among institutional investors, as they seek to capitalize on the potential returns offered by these digital assets.