Coinbase Cloud has $30 billion in crypto assets staked across 25 blockchains

Coinbase Cloud announced Thursday that is has $30 billion worth of crypto assets staked on its platform as of November 2021.

Coinbase Cloud was formerly Bison Trails, a staking infrastructure firm that Coinbase acquired earlier this year for a reported price of above $80 million. Coinbase says Bison Trails is a non-custodial platform, meaning it does not control clients' staked assets.

Coinbase Cloud stakes the massive amount of assets across 25 proof-of-stake blockchain networks, including Ethereum 2.0 (ETH2) — which is yet to fully launch — Tezos (XTZ), and Cosmos Hub (ATOM). The platform stakes these assets on behalf of its clients, including institutional investors, token holders, and enterprises.

A Coinbase spokesperson told The Block that the $30 billion on platform includes assets staked in a non-custodial fashion on behalf of a diverse set of customers, which include Coinbase institutional, as well as a portion of Coinbase retail staking for ETH 2.

Coinbase takes a 25% commission from staking rewards for its custodial service. Coinbase Cloud, on the other hand, takes an 8% cut of staking rewards.

Staking is a way of earning passive income by locking up proof-of-stake coins. Rewards are provided because these coins are effectively used as collateral by validators or nodes when validating a block of transactions.

Other largest staking platforms include those offered by Coinbase rivals Kraken and Binance. Plus there are staking-focused firms like Blockdaemon, Figment, Staked, and Chorus One.

Update: This story and its headline have been updated to clarify that Coinbase Cloud holds the staked assets, not Coinbase itself.