In an announcement made on April 24, Binance, the cryptocurrency exchange with the largest trade volume, unveiled its latest staking product, wrapped beacon eth (WBETH). This new addition to Binance’s staking solutions is built on the Ethereum network, joining the ranks of other competing liquid staking products such as Lido, Coinbase, Rocket Pool, and Frax.
WBETH Emerges as Binance’s New Solution to Ethereum-Based Staking
Liquid staking products based on Ethereum have been gaining popularity over the past two years. According to defillama.com metrics, as of this writing, there are over 8.2 million ether worth $15.49 billion locked into liquid staking derivatives. A staggering 74.22% of these ether assets are held by Lido Finance, the current leader in this space.
Coinbase’s wrapped ether product comes in second with $2.19 billion locked, followed by Rocket Pool with $983.26 million, Frax with $297.09 million, and Stakewise with $163.98 million. Binance has revealed that it has created two contracts for its new WBETH token, one for the Binance Smart Chain and one for Ethereum. The token will be available for trading on Binance from Thursday, with BUSD, ETH, and USDT trading pairs.
Starting on April 27, 2023, users will be able to create WBETH by depositing 1 ether, and vice versa. “Each WBETH token will accrue ETH Staking rewards daily, in accordance with the daily APR on ETH Staking,” states Binance. Additionally, to “support the daily updates of the BETH/WBETH conversion rate, the ‘Wrap’ and ‘Unwrap’ functions will be temporarily paused each day” at a designated time.
What do you think the future holds for liquid staking products, and how will the launch of WBETH impact the competitive landscape? Share your thoughts about this subject in the comments section below.