DCG's mining subsidiary Foundry launches staking business

Foundry, the Bitcoin mining and financing subsidiary of Digital Currency Group, has launched a staking business-as-a-service targeting institutions.

The firm said in an announcement on Wednesday that Foundry Staking will stake for the firm itself and external crypto holders on proof-of-stake (PoS) protocols. It will also offer infrastructure as a white-glove service for institutions like crypto exchanges, hedge funds and custodians.

Foundry said it started staking internally for DCG in the summer of 2020 and is now launching with more supported protocols, targeting institutions. 

Per Foundry Staking's website, it now supports 20 protocols including most of the PoS networks that are within the top 20 cryptocurrencies by market capitalization such as SOL, ADA, DOT, LUNA, AVAX and MATIC.

Foundry CEO Mike Colyer said in the announcement that the firm has made "significant investments" in engineering talent and PoS infrastructure to replicate its growth in the proof-of-work mining pool business.

Foundry started testing its Bitcoin mining pool last year and mined its first block in October. It didn't officially launch the Foundry USA Pool until March this year.

Thanks to not only the growth of the North American Bitcoin mining community but the decline of their Chinese rivals, Foundry USA Pool has grown to the third largest Bitcoin mining pool by real-time hash rate, after Bitmain's Antpool and F2Pool.