Bitcoin mining firm and Ethereum staking provider Bit Digital joined Rug Radio and Decrypt at the MYRIAD Tides event in Singapore.
Hosted at KOMA Singapore on September 18, the event saw guests enjoying sushi, free flowing drinks and incredible performances as Rug Radio and Decrypt celebrated the launch of MYRIAD, a prediction market and engagement ecosystem that aims to fundamentally change the way people engage with digital media.
The ‘MicroStrategy of Ethereum’
Earlier this year, Bit Digital used its profits from mining Bitcoin to acquire over $100 million in Ethereum, with the goal of becoming the “MicroStrategy of Ethereum,” according to the firm’s CEO Sam Tabar.
“We are providing a unique solution to the capital markets that wish to have exposure to Ethereum without buying the underlying asset, whilst at the same time offering staking economics,” Tabar told Decrypt. “We are securitizing Ethereum for people who want to buy it in that format. To my knowledge, no one else is doing this,” he said, adding that Bit Digital is “uniquely positioned” to offer this service.
As Bit Digital is a public company, its holdings are public information, Tabar said, and with around 21,568 ETH actively staked in August, earning 56.6 ETH in aggregated staking rewards, the firm appears to be making good on its promise to duplicate the MicroStrategy playbook for Ethereum.
The approval of U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs earlier this year has been a “net positive” for Bit Digital, he said, noting that it gets more people involved in the asset class, educating them on Ethereum’s technology and smart contract economy.
Spot Ethereum ETFs have also offered a crucial point of differentiation for Bit Digital, he said, “showcasing to the capital markets that we are able to stake ETH but ETFs cannot. If people want exposure to staking economics, they buy our ticker.”
“We have staked a large portion of the ETH we have to give institutions and TradFi users a way to get exposure to Ethereum staking,” Tabar said, noting that while staking as a service isn’t permitted in the U.S., “A lot of institutions are trying to get exposure to Ethereum.”
As a publicly listed company that can stake ETH, he said, Bit Digital represents a leveraged play on Ethereum to institutional investors. “We’re solving a big problem,” he added. “No one else is doing this, and it’s pretty gigantic.”
