Coinbase Ventures invests in Rocket Pool via RPL token purchase

Quick Take

  • Coinbase Ventures purchased an undisclosed amont of RPL as a strategic investment in Rocket Pool. 
  • The crypto exchange also participates in Rocket Pool’s Oracle DAO and runs “several hundred” Rocket Pool nodes using corporate ETH. 

Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of crypto exchange giant Coinbase, made a strategic investment in the liquid staking protocol Rocket Pool. 

Rocket Pool lets individuals fund new validators and earn rewards, even if they hold less than the minimum amount needed to fund an Ethereum network validator node on their own.

Coinbase invested in Rocket Pool by buying an undisclosed sum of RPL, the protocol's native token that currently trades at $28.35 with a market capitalization of $556 million.

"Rocket Pool is a leading liquid staking network on Ethereum, allowing users to stake ETH while retaining liquidity. With an emphasis on decentralization, the Rocket Pool network now consists of over 3,100 node operators with more than 780,000 ETH staked," the firm wrote on social media.

Rocket Pool's Oracle DAO

Along with financially supporting Rocket Pool, Coinbase participates in Rocket Pool's Oracle DAO and uses "ETH from our corporate balance sheet to operate several hundred nodes on the Rocket Pool network," the firm added.

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"In addition to our efforts this Onchain Summer with the launch of Base mainnet, we believe scaling Ethereum’s infrastructure in a safe, decentralized manner is critical to bringing the next billion users on-chain."

Coinbase did not immediately respond a request for comment from The Block.


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About Author

MK Manoylov has been a reporter for The Block since 2020 — joining just before bitcoin surpassed $20,000 for the first time. Since then, MK has written nearly 1,000 articles for the publication, covering any and all crypto news but with a penchant toward NFT, metaverse, web3 gaming, funding, crime, hack and crypto ecosystem stories. MK holds a graduate degree from New York University's Science, Health and Environmental Reporting Program (SHERP) and has also covered health topics for WebMD and Insider. You can follow MK on X @MManoylov and on LinkedIn.

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