Coinbase Ventures Invests in Ethereum Liquid Staking Protocol Rocket Pool

Coinbase has acquired an undisclosed amount of RPL

Rocket Pool, a liquid staking protocol, has received a strategic investment from Coinbase Ventures, the investment arm of cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase.

Rocket Pool’s innovative approach allows users to support new validators and receive rewards even if their holdings are less than the minimal amount needed to independently fund a validator node on the Ethereum network.

An undisclosed sum of RPL, the protocol’s native token, was purchased by Coinbase as part of its investment in Rocket Pool. In order to promote decentralization, Rocket Pool has a network of over 3,100 node operators and over 780,000 ETH staked for liquid staking on Ethereum.

Following the news, the RPL token increased by over 6.9% to $28.78. RPL is up 0.10% over the past 24 hours, according to CoinMarketCap data.

Coinbase is involved with Rocket Pool’s Oracle DAO in addition to providing funding, and it uses ETH taken from its corporate balance sheet to run a sizable number of nodes on the Rocket Pool network.

The decision fits in with Coinbase’s broader initiatives to secure and decentralize the expansion of Ethereum’s infrastructure in order to bring more users on to the blockchain.