Today FINMA regulated digital asset bank SEBA announced the launch of SEBA Earn. Its offering will include access to permissioned decentralized finance (DeFi) as well as staking services and cryptocurrency lending.
We previously reported that DeFi lending protocol Aave is working on permissioned lending pools for whitelisted users. In late September, custody firm Fireblocks which works with numerous institutions, requested to be added a whitelister, providing a gateway for regulatory compliant institutions that will only transact with other whitelisted users.
Most modern blockchains operate as proof of stake instead of proof of work, secured by investors staking their cryptocurrency holdings for a return. SEBA Earn provides staking offerings for the Polkadot, Tether and Cardano platforms. The bank says it plans to expand the supported staked blockchains.
Additionally, SEBA will provide a centralized lending solution. There are a number of big decentralized as well as centralized cryptocurrency lenders that are not regulated as banks, with some of the centralized lenders attracting regulator attention in the United States. Users deposit cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Ether to earn a return. In turn, the bank can lend out crypto-assets.
“It is clear that as institutional interest in digital assets accelerates, investors have a broader appetite for crypto assets, with a particular interest in earning services like staking, DeFi and centralized crypto borrowing and lending,” said Guido Buehler, CEO of SEBA Bank.
“SEBA Earn, our comprehensive digital asset earning offering, provides professional and institutional players with a flexible platform and a trusted, regulated provider to securely enter the space.”
The Swiss digital asset bank has also been involved in central bank digital currency (CBDC) activities. It ran one of the eight consortia that participated in the Banque de France’s wholesale CBDC experiments. And it’s also in one of the teams that made it to the Singapore Global CBDC Challenge finals in conjunction with Xfers.
