Key Points
Bitwise, a crypto asset manager, has expanded its business through the purchase of Attestant.
Attestant is a London-based Ethereum (ETH) staking service that doesn’t hold custody of the assets.
The financial specifics of this deal have not been made public.
Attestant’s Influence
Attestant manages approximately $3.7 billion in assets for institutional investors.
The Attestant team, composed of 11 members, will join Bitwise after the acquisition.
This addition will enable Bitwise to oversee more than $10 billion in client assets.
Hunter Horsley, the CEO of Bitwise, shared his thoughts on the deal with Bloomberg.
He stated that the acquisition signifies a “new chapter of the maturation of this space”.
He also mentioned that this new chapter would be “most useful for clients they want you to be at a certain scale and to offer broad capabilities.”
At present, 20% of Bitwise clients are interested in staking their coins for yield.
However, Horsley expects that most clients will want to do this in the coming years.
Staked Ethereum currently yields an annual return of 3.43%.
Nearly a third of all Ethereum in circulation, worth $112 billion, is now staked, according to Staking Rewards data.
On another note, Ethereum is currently facing resistance at $3,438.
As of press time, it is trading at $3,126 and is down 35% from its record high of $4,891 in November 2021.