Before saying goodbye to an eventful 2023, let’s look at the major launches, achievements, partnerships, and what’s coming next for pSTAKE liquid staking in 2024.
Highlights of 2023
- pSTAKE Total Value Unlocked (TVU) surpassed $10M across ATOM, BNB, and OSMO liquid staking.
- ATOM liquid staking (stkATOM) and OSMO liquid staking (stkOSMO) were launched natively in Cosmos on the Persistence core-1 chain.
- pSTAKE’s liquid staking expansion plans to dYdX (DYDX), Persistence (XPRT), and Celestia (TIA) were announced.
- The Cosmos Hub deployed 600k ATOM as Protocol Owned Liquidity on pSTAKE for stkATOM on Astroport (Neutron) and Dexter (Persistence).
- The native token of Thena ($THE), the native liquidity layer on BNB Chain, was airdropped to stkBNB holders.
- Crypto.com, a leading Centralized Exchange, listed the PSTAKE token.
- Ceffu Global (formerly Binance Custody) added token custody support for PSTAKE and stkBNB tokens.
- stkATOM (ERC-20) and stkXPRT (ERC-20) migration from Ethereum to Persistence went live for early pSTAKE users to move to Cosmos in a single click.
- The support for the Liquid Staking Module (LSM), to convert native staked ATOM into liquid staked stkATOM instantly without the 21-day unbonding period, was added to improve the ATOM liquid staking UX. Over 72,000 staked ATOM have already been liquid staked on pSTAKE using LSM.
- A new Chain Decentralization Delegation Strategy was launched with stkOSMO to optimize pSTAKE’s stake delegation to decentralize supported chains.
- Pulsar Finance integrated pSTAKE into its platform, enhancing user experience by allowing users to track their stkATOM, stkBNB, and stkOSMO LST positions.
stkTokens in DeFi
With 15+ DeFi partners across two major PoS Ecosystems, stkATOM, stkBNB, and stkOSMO are becoming increasingly routed in the Cosmos and BNB Chain ecosystems.
| stkToken | Utility |
| stkATOM | – Provide liquidity on Dexter, Astroport (Neutron), Shade Protocol, Osmosis, or Crescent – Borrow other tokens on Umee – Open a DeFi lease on Nolus – Mint decentralized stablecoin SILK on Shade Protocol |
| stkOSMO | – Provide liquidity on Osmosis |
| stkBNB | – Provide liquidity on Thena or PancakeSwap – Borrow other tokens on Venus – Deposit stkBNB Thena LP into Beefy Vault |
Power of PSTAKE Governance
The PSTAKE governance is the ultimate authority for impactful decisions such as incentivization, protocol parameters like fee structure, stkToken expansion, Validator Delegation Strategy, and more.
PSTAKE governance participated in 11 key proposals and initiatives in 2023, a ~120% increase from 2022. Through these initiatives, the community’s engagement and commitment to shaping the future of pSTAKE highlights the strength and vitality of PSTAKE governance.
Here is a breakdown of the significant on-chain governance proposals from 2023.
| What was it about? | How did it benefit the pSTAKE Ecosystem? |
| Migration of stkATOM(ERC-20) and stkXPRT(ERC-20) | – The two (older) ERC-20 stkTokens were deprecated as pSTAKE was natively deployed on Persistence. – Migration tool provided a 1-click, easy-to-use user experience for early pSTAKE users |
| Incentivization on Cosmos | – Aid in the adoption of stkATOM and stkOSMO with initial liquidity bootstrapping – Increase in traction as $6M+, ~60% of pSTAKE’s Total Value Unlocked (TVU), comes from stkATOM and stkOSMO |
| Revenue Share with the Cosmos Hub | – 15% of the pSTAKE’s ATOM liquid staking revenue was shared with the Cosmos Hub in return for 600k ATOM to be deployed as Protocol Owned stkATOM liquidity on two DEXs (Dexter and Astroport) in Cosmos – Increased TVL, liquidity, adoption avenues, and utility of stkATOM – Alignment with the Cosmos Hub and joining the ATOM Economic Zone (AEZ) |
| pSTAKE Expansion | – stkATOM and stkOSMO were launched on the Persistence core-1 chain in Cosmos |
Looking Forward to 2024
Committing to Cosmos
The global crypto community has been following Cosmos closely over the past year, witnessing milestones such as the launch of numerous app chains, the establishment of the ATOM Economic Zone (AEZ), a reduction in ATOM inflation, and the widespread adoption of IBC beyond Cosmos, among others. The adoption of the app chain thesis presents a massive opportunity for pSTAKE. As more chains like dYdX and Celestia come to life in the IBC world, pSTAKE’s addressable market for Cosmos LST issuance will keep increasing.
It is evident from the EVM world that liquid staking and LSTfi have Product Market Fit. As LSTfi in Cosmos continues to evolve, pSTAKE will be doubling down on the Cosmos ecosystem to capitalize on these significant growth opportunities.
Cosmos Hub Prop 853 has made the Persistence Ecosystem (and pSTAKE) ATOM-aligned. This synergy has led to a win-win situation where the Cosmos Hub has benefitted with more ATOM liquid staked, increased economic activity within the AEZ, additional revenue share, and more.
stkAssets will continue to support the Cosmos Hub and AEZ by being more integrated into the Neutron DeFi Ecosystem. Token liquidity will be bootstrapped on Astroport while adding more DeFi applications on prominent protocols such as Mars, Nolus, and more.
Additionally, pSTAKE contributors are actively exploring other exciting developments and avenues in the Cosmos PoS with projects such as Babylon introducing first-of-its-kind BTC staking.
The growth and adoption of ATOM and OSMO liquid staking
With 590k+ ATOM (~$6M) staked through pSTAKE and ~$8.2M stkATOM liquidity in Cosmos across various DEXs, stkATOM has successfully built both diverse and substantial liquidity. The recent increase in liquidity from the Cosmos Hub Protocol Owned Liquidity deployment will result in even more efficient stkATOM trading and further use cases.
stkATOM’S utility will be further increased:
- Collateral for more decentralized stablecoins like IST by Inter Protocol on Agoric and USK by Kujira
- Tight integration into the Neutron Ecosystem by leveraging stkATOM’s liquidity on Astroport for further applications like collateral on Mars Protocol, Amulet Finance, and other upcoming DeFi protocols.
- Potentially working on airdrop and governance participation support for stkATOM holders.
- To improve the UX for ATOM liquid staking, pSTAKE is expanding its range of tokens for minting stkATOM with USDC and USDT, significantly improve the ATOM liquid staking user experience.
stkOSMO introduces vital differentiators to the OSMO liquid staking landscape with extra efforts towards Osmosis chain decentralization and UX improvements, such as Flash Unstake. The current priority remains bootstrapping of stkOSMO liquidity on Osmosis’ Supercharged stkOSMO/OSMO pool, incentivized with PSTAKE tokens. Post that, stkOSMO will find its way to become a fundamental component of the Osmosis DeFi Ecosystem, integrating with leading protocols like Quasar Finance for vaults, Mars Protocol and Umee for borrowing and lending, Levana Finance for perpetuals, and more.
Expansion to dYdX, Celestia, and Persistence liquid staking
pSTAKE is on track to introduce at least three new stkTokens in 2024: stkDYDX, stkXPRT, and stkTIA.
The transition of dYdX, a leading perpetuals DEX, to a Cosmos app chain, brings prospects of substantial liquidity and an active community to Cosmos. Its real yield from trading fees and a 30-day unbonding period make dYdX ideal for liquid staking. We’ve already launched a dev version of stkDYDX on the Persistence Core-1 testnet. Once Inter Chain Accounts (ICA) is enabled on DYDX, stkDYDX will be launched to further decentralize the dYdX chain and enable integrations into the Ethereum ecosystem with projects such as Pendle.
Celestia, a new modular data availability chain within the Cosmos ecosystem, has recently launched and is creating a lot of excitement. As rollups bring new users and blockchains to Cosmos, TIA’s token staking role will become crucial, highlighting the need for liquid staking. The launch of stkTIA has a similar dependency on ICA being enabled on Celestia, similar to dYdX.
Persistence, the Cosmos app chain for LSTfi and pSTAKE’s home, utilizes XPRT as its native token.XPRT’s widespread utility with chain security, decentralized LSTfi governance, on-chain LSTfi traction, and transactions coupled with its >75% bonded ratio, make it an excellent candidate for liquid staking.
Final Thoughts
2024 will be all about adopting pSTAKE’s stkTokens with strategic liquid staking support expansion to DYDX, XPRT, TIA, and more and forming stronger alliances within the ATOM Economic Zone (AEZ).
While product growth continues its momentum, the focus will be on raising awareness about pSTAKE and its USPs by bolstering marketing and expanding our distribution with new partnerships and collaborations.
About pSTAKE
pSTAKE is a multi-chain liquid staking protocol that unlocks liquidity for your staked assets. With pSTAKE, you can securely stake your Proof-of-Stake (PoS) assets to earn staking rewards and receive staked underlying representative tokens (stkTokens), which can be used to explore additional yield opportunities across DeFi.
At present, pSTAKE supports Cosmos Hub (ATOM), Binance Chain (BNB), and Osmosis (OSMO) networks’ native tokens, with DYDX, Persistence (XPRT), and Celestia (TIA) support coming soon in the future.
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