BitGo partners with Core DAO to provide institutional Bitcoin yield generation avenue. Today, BitGo is integrating Core’s dual staking model, which lets institutional investors earn extra rewards by staking Bitcoin while keeping full custody of their assets.
Core and BitGo’s collaboration to facilitate dual staking heralds a new era in institutional Bitcoin staking. BitGo is becoming one of the few custodians that offer access to dual staking.
BitGo expects this integration to deliver scalable yields for its institutional clients, compounding the range of options that BitGo’s client base has within the quickly maturing crypto space.
“By integrating with Core, BitGo is fulfilling our mission of expanding access to opportunities that can generate yield for institutional clients who own Bitcoin,” says BitGo CEO Mike Belshe.
Staking Bitcoin With Core: Full Control, No Risk
In the crypto world, staking is a popular avenue for generating yield. It involves locking cryptocurrency to receive passive rewards while simultaneously staking your coins.
Staking (accepting passive rewards for their commitment to the network) is natively supported (although staking fees are often included as part of the block reward itself) on proof of stake (PoS) blockchains like Ethereum (and Bitcoin Cash), but proof of work (PoW) blockchains like Bitcoin operate on different consensus mechanisms, which do not support staking natively.
HashKey says these include custodial lending, wrapping BTC, applying DeFi lending, Bitcoin layer 2 stakings, and restaking. Bitcoin restaking simply means staking Bitcoin through an intermediary protocol that then staking it on external client chains to earn a yield on activities on those chains.
Nevertheless, Core’s solution is different. Rainbow runs a noncustodial Bitcoin staking mechanism by which Bitcoin owners can stake their assets on the Bitcoin blockchain to secure the Core blockchain in return for Core (CORE) tokens. This model allows full control of stakes Bitcoin with no counterparty risk.
The feature of core advances dual staking in Bitcoin. Stakers can earn higher BTC staking rates with staking Bitcoin together with Core tokens vs. traditional forms of staking, and there are many DeFi opportunities.
Focusing on that, founding Core DAO contributor Rich Rines told me, “We’ve kind of taken it up to the next level with the dual staking, and now you can use your Bitcoin in a way that’s putting it to work, getting even better offers for a Bitcoin ecosystem than some of the DeFi opportunities you might find.”
You can earn yield on your Bitcoin without having to trust Core.
Truly self-custodial Bitcoin staking:
🔶Your Bitcoin never leaves your wallet
🔶The time-lock mechanism prevents you from selling them
🔶You unlock Bitcoin’s full potential pic.twitter.com/acWlp4zlee— Core DAO 🔶 (@Coredao_Org) September 4, 2024
The integration with BitGo allows institutions to participate in this innovative staking model without having to worry about risks common to DeFi, such as slashing, credit, counterparty, or smart contract risks. Core’s dual staking means that BitGo’s qualified custody platform ensures that Bitcoin is safe for the client while producing attractive yields.
The company announced that institutions can now safely and automatically timelock client Bitcoin and staked CORE tokens from BitGo’s qualified custody platform offering without slashing credit, counterparty, or smart contract risk on their principal assets by using CORE on BitGo.
BitGo’s partnership with Core marks a new chapter in institutional Bitcoin staking, with more yield opportunities and continued security and control for the institutionally minded.