The Swiss-state-owned bank “Postfinance” had stated on Ethereum Staking on January 16th. According to the statement, the bank has extended its staking for Ethereum. By offering this service, PostFinance gives clients a chance, best explained by the proverb “Put their money where their mouth is.”
PostFinance will surpass other banks as they will give profit to their customers as well because they will allow their customers to make a passive income from their ETH deposits. It will be easier for customers to access their deposit by logging in to their PostFinance app.
The bank required a minimum stake of 0.1 ETH, with a mandatory 12-week lock-up time limit before users could receive rewards. They announced that Ethereum (ETH) would be held up for at least a time before rewards could be given. With ETH as the only crypto COIN on the staking service, PostFinance said that they plan to add more support for other tokens soon as well.
The company has increased digital asset offerings since it entered the crypto market in April 2023 through a collaboration with Signum Bank. Now, Postfinancel offers its 2.5 million customers the opportunity to buy, sell, and store digital assets, making them the first systemically crucial Swiss bank to provide such services. By February 2024, the bank had initiated crypto trading and custody service to intensify its footprint in the crypto market. Now, PostFinance gives access to Eleven crypto coins with the capability to manage crypto savings plans.
Nearly a year after the announcement of the collaboration, the PostFinance offered to include ETH in its staking. Pointing to the staking service, Dr Alexander Thoma, head of digital assets at PostFinance, said, “Staking service is based on native staking, which takes place directly on the Ethereum blockchain and thus offers maximum transparency and security.”
Postfinance provided its customers with a view of their staking rewards. They are not the first financial institution to take the crypto ETH as staking. But their move is noteworthy. Being a state-owned bank, its decision to favour Ethereum Staking signals is a broad acceptance of crypto trading in this conservative and anti-crypto financial circles.
If we look into the past, the fourth largest bank in Switzerland (Zurich Cantonal Bank) also entered the crypto industry by introducing digital asset trade for its clients. They launched BTC and ETH for their customers and provided integrated services like e-banking and mobile banking for BTC and ETH.