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Liquid Staking Boom Continues as Bifrost Launches One-Click Leverage Staking for Polkadot Ecosystem

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Written By: Michael Abadha
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  • Loopstake is available on bifrost.app and with it users can avoid looping collateral manually, a highly inefficient and gas-intensive process

Leading decentralized liquid staking protocol Bifrost has announced the launch of LoopStake, its new Leverage Staking product at the Polkadot Asia developer conference Sub0. The innovative offering will be accessible on bifrost.app from March 13 and is designed to provide users with a simplified one-click strategy to amplify yield on their staked assets.

Leverage staking involves users staking assets to obtain an LST, then using the same liquid staking token (LST) as collateral on a lending protocol to borrow the staked assets and obtain the LST again with the borrowed asset – a process known as looping. With Loopstake, users can avoid looping collateral manually, a highly inefficient and gas-intensive process and have access to this strategy in one click, democratizing and offering a new dimension to crypto asset management. 

Built on the robust Substrate framework and powered by Polkadot, Bifrost is currently the largest liquid staking protocol on Polkadot with approximately $150 million in Total Value Locked (TVL). The new product will, in its initial phase, support leverage staking for assets such as DOT, with plans to gradually expand to more assets, even cross-chain.

Loopstake leverages Bifrost’s dedicated liquid staking architecture and Polkadot’s trustless interoperability to drive liquid staking adoption and cater to a wide range of users, from seasoned DeFi investors to those just starting to explore opportunities in the space. It has been created to streamline the somewhat complex process of leverage staking for non-native DeFi users, offering an intuitive solution for those keen to participate in the yield strategy.

“With the launch of LoopStake by Bifrost, we are opening a new chapter in crypto asset management and providing investors with unprecedented value-added opportunities,” said Lurpis Wang, Cofounder and CEO of Bifrost. “This innovative solution aims to give users greater flexibility and higher potential returns through a lending curve customized for liquid staking tokens, marking our commitment to continuous exploration and innovation in decentralized finance.”

Bifrost’s liquid staked token for DOT, vDOT, recently surpassed 7,000,000 DOT ($68M) in TVL, while vKSM, its liquid staked token for KSM, is nearing the 500,000 KSM ($25M) TVL milestone and leading the Kusama ecosystem.

The rise of liquid staking since Ethereum’s Shapella upgrade, which enabled ETH withdrawals from staking contracts, has marked a significant shift in the DeFi space. Liquid staking is now the largest category within the sector with around $50 billion in TVL. With LSTs replacing native network assets as the preferred collateral within various DeFi protocols due to their versatility and inherent “risk-free” yield, the adoption of LSTs is soaring. LSTs have been described as akin to fixed-income products available in TradFi such as US treasuries.

About Bifrost

Bifrost is a dedicated liquid staking middle layer serving the omni-chain ecosystem. Built on Substrate and powered by Polkadot, it provides standardized cross-chain liquid staking solutions for multiple blockchains.

About LoopStake

LoopStake is a One-Click Leverage Staking product on Bifrost. The product was successfully audited by OAK Security through the Polkadots Assured grant funding program.

This post was last modified on Mar 13, 2024, 10:00 GMT 10:00

Written By: Michael Abadha

Michael is a self-taught financial markets analyst, who specializes in analysis of equities, forex and crypto markets. He draws his inspiration from the fact that markets provide an interface through which the world interacts in search of a better tomorrow.

Published by
Written By: Michael Abadha