Ian Allison
Ian Allison is an award-winning senior reporter at CoinDesk. He holds ETH.
Binance.US, the American arm of the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange, has launched a blockchain staking product promising high yields on staked crypto, with the aim of outflanking similar offerings from rival U.S.-based exchanges.
The staking service – where users lock in assets to support proof-of-stake (PoS) networks – enables users to earn up to an 18% annual percentage yield (APY) on certain tokens, the company announced on Tuesday.
Big exchanges simplify the staking of crypto tokens, for which they take a slice of the yield generated by the coins. Binance.US CEO Brian Shroder said the plan is to outdo staking APYs on the likes of COINBASE and Gemini.
Shroder said staking Cosmos blockchain’s ATOM token will generate a yield of 12.2% APY on Binance.US, while something like the smaller market cap Livepeer token could promise up to an 18% yield on LPT.
“We wanted to put out a product that would unquestionably be the best staking platform in the United States by the end of the year,” Shroder said in an interview. “So, for comparison purposes, we’re looking at the Coinbases, the Geminis, Krakens and BlockFis of this world, both in terms of more competitive returns and usability.”
M&A season?
All told, Binance.US appears to be in good health, notwithstanding signs of an approaching crypto winter; Shroder says the firm has “plenty of dry powder” to pursue acquisitions further down the line.
He also took the opportunity to point out that, in contrast to the dismal job news coming out of Coinbase and Gemini, his firm is hiring.
“We are hiring Coinbase and Gemini people onto our staff,” Shroder said. “There’s a lot of talent from those organizations that are applying to our open positions and we are actively interviewing them.”
Last week, Coinbase announced a hiring freeze and said it would rescind offers to applicants who had accepted jobs at the exchange. Gemini, meanwhile, said it would lay off 10% of its staff.
Read more: Coinbase Announces Cost-Cutting Measures as Crypto Firms Face Bear Market
