Crypto custodian Aegis will offer custody for liquid staking derivatives issued by DeFi protocol Lido.
Aegis, which says it holds trust license in Hong Kong and and the U.S., offers custodial services for on-chain transactions, while Lido, the largest decentralized finance (DeFi) app by total value locked, provides staking services to users that want to access liquidity to their staked assets.
The partnership comes as interest in liquid staking derivatives increases in part because of the Merge: Ethereum’s transition to a proof-of-stake (PoS) consensus mechanism.
Aegis’ end-to-end custody entails handling every aspect of digital asset management for users, which already included safe storage and fiat-to-cryptocurrency conversation. With the new Lido partnership, Aegis said clients can now participate in liquid staking.
Aegis CEO Serra Wei said the latest play stems from demand from family offices and regulation-sensitive businesses overall.
“Entities that are subject to regulations specifically want to access staking benefits and services through a secured gateway,” Wei said.
Additionally, by providing custody solutions for Lido’s digital assets, Aegis is able to increase the security of user’s digital assets, said Lido Co-Founder Vasiliy Shapovalov.
Aegis did not disclose how much capital is stored through its custodial services, while Lido has $8 billion worth of ether staked in its protocol.
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