Coinbase Adds Cardano Staking Rewards
Coinbase says the exchange has additional “plans to continue to scale our staking portfolio” throughout 2022. Coinbase, the publicly traded cryptocurrency exchange, has been on quite the listing spree over the last year, adding everything from ApeCoin (APE) to Wrapped Centrifuge (WCFG). Its also buffing up its staking options. The exchange announced today that it now offers staking for ADA, the native cryptocurrency of the Cardano blockchain. In explaining the decision, senior product manager Rupmalini Sahu pointed to ADAs top-10 market capitalization and its “flexible, sustainable, and scalable” blockchain design. That design uses smart contracts, similar to Ethereum and Solana, to enable decentralized finance, NFTs, and other activities on the network. Cardano is a proof-of-stake cryptocurrency, meaning that its network is secured not through mining, as with Bitcoin, but by people committing a portion of their ADA holdings to the network. In return, they receive a share of newly minted ADA. Because this “staking” process can be a bit overwhelming or time-consuming for average user, Coinbase and other exchanges offer to do it for them—pooling ADA together on the Cardano network, then redistributing a portion of the rewards. Its estimating an annual return of 3.75%, to be distributed every five to seven days. Cardano, the price