Metamask adds staking

Metamask just made it easy for its users to participate in staking.

Why it matters: Staking provides the yield native to the Ethereum blockchain.

Context: Metamask is far and away the most used cryptocurrency wallet on Ethereum, and maybe the most used software wallet, period.

• The company behind it estimates it has 30 million users.

Staking yield is paid in ether (ETH). So, in theory, a user could earn more ETH but, in real terms, that gain could all be lost quickly if the value of ETH were to take a dive.

• However, though ETH's price increase has been slower than BTC's, it's been trending up over the last year.
• Which means in real terms a staker is getting a double boon: both the increased value of their underlying ETH, plus more ETH.

By the numbers: On balance, stakers are earning a 3.36% rate of return lately.

The intrigue: Metamask has something of a captive audience of cryptocurrency users. Allowing them to join a staking pool with just one click must be attractive.

• However, the company is not offering a tokenization of their stake, like other products such as Lido and Rocket Pool do. So Metamask users won't be able to get the double benefit of participating in re-staking.