Caladan, an institutional OTC desk reportedly handling over $50 billion annually across 65+ exchanges, now accepts stETH – Ethereum’s liquid staking token issued via the Lido protocol – as collateral across its options and structured-product desks.
Hedge funds, crypto-native trading firms, and foundations “can use stETH as collateral for options, hedging, and short-term positioning strategies.”
Importantly, institutions retain “full liquidity and continue receiving Ethereum staking rewards even as they strategically deploy their assets.”
Institutional adoption of liquid staking tokens “continues to accelerate, with stETH representing over $30 billion in ETH staked via the Lido protocol.”
Broad integrations across decentralized finance (DeFi), OTC desks, and custodians – “including Fireblocks, Copper, and BitGo – reinforce stETH’s position as the institutional standard for liquid staking.”
Caladan’s addition of stETH simplifies processes “for institutions aiming to incorporate liquid staking into structured trading, risk management, and treasury operations.”
Benefits of Using stETH Collateral with Caladan:
- Receive staking rewards and maintain liquidity: Keep ETH staked and receiving rewards while deploying it as collateral.
- Operational integration: Caladan simplifies operations, making stETH easy to integrate into sophisticated institutional trading strategies.
- Institutional-Grade Trading Infrastructure: Leverage Caladan’s extensive OTC network, executing over $50 billion annually across 65+ exchanges, enabling efficient and scalable deployment of stETH collateral.
Kean Gilbert, Head of Institutional Relations at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation:
“Caladan’s integration shows why institutions are turning to stETH. They gain access to liquidity, Ethereum staking rewards, and decentralized infrastructure through the Lido protocol – all ingredients for deploying ETH holdings.”
This integration is another step forward “for institutional adoption of liquid staking.”
With liquidity, institutional adoption, and decentralized infrastructure, stETH is becoming a “component of treasury management.”
As noted in the update, Lido Institutional represents “a group of contributors focused on advocating for the use of Lido protocol’s open-source, liquid staking middleware by non-retail users.”
Lido middleware provides a way to “participate in the blockchain network validation process and get staking rewards for this activity.”
With a mission to democratize staking, Lido middleware “lets users connect with node operators and stake their digital assets without the need to individually maintain hardware.”