ETHDenver 2026 saw side events collapse, prize pools slashed, and AI × crypto dominate the floor, leaving a leaner, builder‑driven conference with prediction markets in focus.

ETHDenver 2026 saw side events crater from 668 in 2025 to roughly 215 this year, a brutal 68% drop that signals a tighter, efficiency‑driven market. Timing near Lunar New Year hurt Asian teams, while competing gatherings like the WLFI Forum at Mar‑a‑Lago siphoned OGs and core builders away. The result: ETHDenver remained a North American hub, but with visibly fewer international attendees and reduced global influence.​

Public chain ecosystems also pulled back from the old spray‑and‑pray visibility model. Monad and X Layer were relatively active, with Monad hosting three events and X Layer sponsoring the main stage, while Solana limited itself to one small but high‑quality event. Across the board, teams shifted to a minimal, symbolic presence and cost‑effectiveness over sheer volume and hype.

Onsite, ETHDenver felt less like a pure crypto conference and more like an AI × crypto expo. The venue split into five stages, with the Futurllama track (AI/DePIN and frontier trends) drawing the largest crowds. Parallel AI‑themed gatherings like Sentient’s Open AGI Summit were packed, in some cases busier than official main‑venue areas.​

The project mix changed accordingly. Robots, robotic arms, and embodied intelligence plays like PrismaX and Gensyn made the floor look more like CES than a DeFi show. Many teams still wore the Web3 label, but their core story shifted from chains, DeFi, or wallets to agents, chatbots, and application‑layer AI products. One exchange strategy lead said the real opportunity is not building “big models” but embedding AI directly into exchange products, including an in‑exchange LLM that reads real‑time news, recommends trades, and executes them inside a chat interface.​

Builder Culture Intact, But Prize Pools Shrink

Despite the AI pivot, ETHDenver remained builder‑centric. The final day’s schedule handed the expo floor entirely to the hackathon and Builder Workshop, while side events from chains like Base were pointed squarely at developers. Base also tested Braindate, a structured social tool where attendees could spin up or join themed sessions instead of aimless networking.​

The BUIDLathon format shifted to a front‑loaded model, adding an online hacking phase with topics announced a week early; on‑site days were cut from eight to four, turning Denver into a finishing sprint rather than the starting gun. The money told the harsher story: the prize pool collapsed from 1.03 million dollars last year to 132,000 dollars, with sponsor budgets more concentrated and skewed toward AI‑oriented tracks. Judges rewarded projects that translated AI + crypto into mass‑market use cases, from an “AI girlfriend” with tipping incentives to an AI‑agent ad protocol using on‑chain validators to prove task completion before paying out budgets.​

Messy Judging, But Diverse Builders

The hackathon judging process felt improvised. Teams pitched the main track in five‑minute slots to 2–3 judges, favoring projects that could communicate clearly, be memorable, and entertain over pure technical rigor or polish. Sponsor‑track judging, including Base and others, was described as more chaotic, with unclear queues that stressed teams’ ability to navigate on‑site logistics as much as present their work.​

Still, the participant base was notably diverse: students, veteran builders, industry lifers, and playful creators, spanning AI, DeFi, GameFi, and hybrid experiments. Newcomers were not locked into “classic” crypto primitives; instead they blended AI, gaming, advertising, and social layers with on‑chain rails as a default assumption.​

Prediction Markets and Bear‑Market Resilience

Prediction markets got their own spotlight at a Monad‑hosted Frontier Markets event. Speakers flagged three main structural pain points: liquidity scarcity, constantly expiring markets that fragment and migrate liquidity, and the difficulty of attracting LPs to long‑tail markets versus the perpetual futures model familiar to traditional market makers. Because prediction markets can gap to zero at settlement, leverage, MM design, and risk controls are more complex, further deterring large traditional players.​

At the same time, popular markets tend to pull in retail‑heavy liquidity, suggesting the key edge is not another generic prediction DEX but whoever can consistently create compelling markets and wrap them in a better UX. Overall, ETHDenver 2026 reads as a bear‑market snapshot: less euphoria, smaller budgets, but a core of builders, early‑stage investors, and imperfect yet promising business models feeling around for the next crypto cycle.

Retail traders are selling Bitcoin at losses while long-term holders remain inactive, a split analysts say could tighten supply conditions.

Bitcoin is trading near the $70,000 mark, with on-chain data showing a widening gap between retail investors dumping their holdings and long-term holders staying completely still.

That split is drawing attention from analysts who say the pattern could be setting up conditions for a supply squeeze.

Exchange Reserves Are Falling While Small Holders Sell

According to analyst GugaOnChain, since the start of the year, Bitcoin exchange reserves have dropped by around 204,000 BTC, going from 2.99 million to 2.786 million BTC. This means that there are fewer units available on exchanges for selling, even with short-term holders offloading their stash.

The analyst mentioned that a metric tracking whether recent buyers are gaining or losing when they sell, known as the Short-Term Holder Spent Output Profit Ratio (SOPR-STH), is at 0.97. According to them, a reading below 1.0 means that holders are in the red, which could be because they are selling out of panic rather than as part of a strategy.

Meanwhile, long-term whales are not moving, with GugaOnChain pointing out that older coins, most of which are sitting on huge unrealized gains, have not been touched. Per the on-chain technician, selling pressure at this stage is “purely emotional,” driven mostly by newer traders who bought their BTC at higher prices and are now cutting losses.

A market update from fellow CryptoQuant contributor burakkesmeci added a related data point. They wrote that Bitcoin whales who have held the cryptocurrency for less than 155 days are sitting on an average cost basis of about $85,600. And with BTC trading well below that level, it means that those newer whales are underwater.

According to the analyst, Bitcoin’s bull cycles have only resumed once the price reclaims and holds above this group’s cost basis.

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“Looking at Bitcoin’s cycles, the pattern is consistent,” they wrote. “When price falls below the STH whale cost basis, bear season begins — when price reclaims and holds above it, bull season follows.”

Apparently, that level was tested in January but held as resistance and subsequently pushed BTC down to the $60,000 level.

Stress Test Passed, But Questions Remain

Last weekend gave the market an unexpected data point when oil prices jumped sharply, but Bitcoin held above $70,000. Fundstrat’s Tom Lee said it was a sign that Bitcoin was “coming back in vogue as a store of value.”

That argument got a brief test yesterday, when the king cryptocurrency whipsawed between roughly $69,000 and $71,200 after U.S. President Donald Trump claimed on social media that there was “nothing left to target” in Iran. Within minutes, his comment added nearly $2,000 to BTC’s price, even though it later retreated.

At the time of writing, price data from CoinGecko showed Bitcoin down 3.7% over the last seven days, underperforming the broader crypto market, which dropped around 1.7% in the same period. Meanwhile, the one-year return is at -15%, with Bitcoin also sitting nearly 45% below its all-time high.

The United States Senate took a clear stance on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) by attaching a prohibition to the 21st Century Road to Housing Act. In a vote that reflected strong bipartisan skepticism about a government-issued digital dollar, the chamber approved an amendment barring the Federal Reserve from issuing CBDCs through December 31, 2030. The measure, which passed 89-10, would force the Fed to refrain from creating or facilitating a central bank digital currency or any digital asset substantially similar to one, whether directly or through intermediaries. While the amendment imposes a hard stop on CBDCs, it leaves room for private, dollar-denominated digital currencies that are open, permissionless, and private—such as stablecoins.

Beyond the legislative language, the discussion underscored a broader rift over the future of digital money in the United States. Proponents of private digital dollars argue that dollar-pegged, open financial instruments could bolster payment efficiency and resilience, while CBDC skeptics warn of state surveillance and centralized control. The amendment’s language and the surrounding debate reflect a pivotal moment in which lawmakers weigh the balance between financial innovation and constitutional protections.

Key takeaways

• The Senate approved an amendment to the 21st Century Road to Housing Act that would block the Federal Reserve from issuing a central bank digital currency until at least the end of 2030, in a 89-10 vote.
• The amendment prohibits the Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System or a Federal Reserve Bank from issuing or creating a CBDC, or any digital asset substantially similar to a CBDC, directly or indirectly through a financial intermediary.
• Open, permissionless, and private dollar-denominated digital currencies—such as stablecoins—are explicitly not prohibited by the bill, signaling a preference for private digital dollars over a government-run CBDC.
• Lawmakers framed CBDCs as potential tools for surveillance and control, with a coordinated push from some members to secure a permanent ban rather than a temporary moratorium.
• Prominent voices in the debate, including Representative Ralph Norman and Representative Warren Davidson, criticized CBDCs as threats to economic freedom and privacy, while figures such as Ray Dalio warned of expanded government reach under a CBDC regime.

Market context: The bill arrives amid ongoing national discussions about how to regulate and deploy digital money, balancing innovation with consumer protections and privacy considerations. The stance on CBDCs could influence how the administration and regulators approach digital payments, stablecoins, and potential future policy tools in a rapidly evolving sector.

Why it matters

The amendment’s passage signals a legislative preference for limiting federal influence over the form and reach of digital money in the near term. By barring CBDC issuance through 2030, lawmakers create a period of regulatory ambiguity for the Fed and other federal agencies, potentially slowing any centralized digital-dollar program and shaping private sector experimentation in stablecoins and other dollar-linked instruments. The carve-out for open, permissionless, private digital currencies acknowledges the continued vitality of the private sector in building digital payment rails, while also underscoring that Congress remains wary of government-run monetary infrastructure.

The rhetoric surrounding the bill reflects broader concerns about financial sovereignty. Critics argue that CBDCs could enable pervasive financial surveillance, programmable money, and coercive policy tools, whereas proponents contend that a well-regulated CBDC could modernize payments, increase financial inclusion, and improve monetary policy transmission. The debate has drawn inputs from lawmakers across the spectrum, including a March 6 letter signed by more than 30 representatives urging a permanent CBDC ban rather than a temporary halt. The document frames CBDCs as a potential expansion of governmental power over the private economy, a theme that recurs in the remarks of opponents who emphasize civil liberties and market freedom.

In parallel, notable financial thinkers have weighed in on the implications of CBDCs. Ray Dalio, a prominent investor, has warned that CBDCs could drastically expand governmental control over individuals’ finances, with remarks highlighting concerns about privacy and state reach. These comments have fed into the broader political narrative that a centralized digital dollar would reshape how citizens interact with money and how monetary policy translates into daily life. At the same time, discussions about stablecoins—dollar-pegged instruments issued by private entities—are often cited as a counterpoint to CBDCs, with supporters arguing they offer a market-driven alternative while critics worry about regulatory gaps and systemic risk.

Overall, the Senate’s move to insert a CBDC prohibition into housing legislation places the issue at the intersection of monetary policy, civil liberties, and the evolving infrastructure of digital finance. The amendment’s language draws a bright line around government-issued digital money, while leaving room for private digital currencies to operate under market-driven incentives and existing financial regulations. The contrast between a centrally administered CBDC and privately issued stablecoins represents a central tension in the governance of digital money—a tension that lawmakers will continue to navigate as the policy conversation unfolds.

What to watch next

• Bridge to the House: Monitor whether the House of Representatives adopts a companion provision or different language regarding CBDCs in the ongoing version of the bill.
• Averting amendments: Track any amendments introduced in committee that could alter the CBDC ban’s scope or timing.
• GENIUS Act progress: Follow developments related to the Guiding and Empowering Nation’s Innovation for US Stablecoins (GENIUS) Act and its implications for private digital currencies.
• Fed communications: Watch for forthcoming statements or policy papers from the Federal Reserve that outline its stance on digital currencies and potential future pilots or research.
• Regulatory framework for stablecoins: Expect continued scrutiny of dollar-denominated private digital currencies and any broader regulatory proposals affecting stablecoins.

Sources & verification

• Text of the amendment in the 21st Century Road to Housing Act (PDF MIR26311) from the US Senate.
• Senate vote tally showing the 89-10 passage of the amendment.
• Letter signed by over 30 lawmakers urging a permanent CBDC ban, discussed in public statements and on social media.
• Interviews and remarks cited regarding CBDC surveillance concerns, including comments from investors and policymakers.
• Documentation and analysis related to the GENIUS Act and its relevance to private stablecoins.

Why it matters (expanded)

The legislative stance reflected in the amendment provides a concrete waypoint in the United States’ evolving stance on digital money. If the House and the executive branch align with or diverge from this approach, the policy trajectory for CBDCs could become clearer or more contested. For market participants, the absence of an immediate CBDC program reduces near-term policy risk around central bank digital money while maintaining a focus on the growth and regulation of private digital currencies. For builders and investors, the distinction between a regulated private dollar and a hypothetical government-issued CBDC continues to shape product design, compliance strategies, and the risk calculus around digital payment ecosystems.

Key figures and next steps

Lawmakers cited in the debate emphasize a preference for preserving financial privacy and avoiding centralized tools that could enable monetary controls. While the Senate acted decisively on the amendment, observers say the broader fight over CBDCs and digital dollars will likely persist across committee hearings, floor votes, and regulatory proposals. The coming months could reveal whether the administration decides to pursue a CBDC variant through different channels or to double down on private-sector-led digital currencies as the primary vector for modernization in payments and monetary policy tools.

What this means for users and investors

For users and investors, the latest development signals a continued preference for private, dollar-denominated digital assets over a federally issued CBDC in the near term. It also reinforces the importance of robust regulatory frameworks for stablecoins and other digital instruments that could influence liquidity, settlement speed, and monetary policy transmission in the digital asset space. As lawmakers debate the pros and cons of centralized digital money, the market will likely watch for any shifts in Fed communications, related legislative efforts, or new initiatives aimed at balancing innovation with privacy and financial stability.

Outset Media Index (OMI) is now in soft launch, introducing what its creators describe as the first standardized system for benchmarking media outlets. 

OMI organizes familiar traffic indicators from partner sources such as Similarweb and Moz, adds proprietary research metrics for practical context and turns this data into a single analytical framework that makes analysis repeatable, transparent and adaptable to different workflows.

Teams that run media operations, including advertisers, marketers, PR agencies and publishers, can use OMI to plan campaigns with greater clarity, manage media budgets more deliberately and improve campaign outcomes over time.

Internally, the platform is supported by a broader analytical layer within the Outset PR ecosystem. While OMI focuses on measuring how outlets perform, Outset Data Pulse interprets those signals through research reports that examine media trends and structural changes shaping the industry.

Additional tools help track how coverage circulates after publication. A syndication map follows how articles travel through aggregators and secondary outlets, while an automated parser monitors republications across large numbers of media sites.

Behind the index sits a methodology designed to keep rankings consistent. Before scoring, inputs are reviewed, normalized and consolidated into several weighted parameters that apply across all listed outlets. 

Importantly, OMI operates independently from commercial influence. Positions in the index cannot be bought or negotiated. Publications do not pay for placement, and scores cannot be adjusted on request. 

Structured intelligence that examines what other monitoring tools miss

Outset Media Index currently tracks over 340 outlets with active crypto coverage, including specific publications and broader fintech portals with dedicated crypto sections, through 37 metrics and two scoring frameworks. 

Traffic estimates, SEO visibility, pricing, referral patterns and market knowledge all reveal something, but rarely in one comparable structure. OMI brings those signals together so users can see not just how visible a media outlet looks at a glance, but also how it behaves over time, how audiences interact with it, how the editorial team approaches collaboration and how coverage continues to move after publication.

Some metrics focus on scale and traffic quality. Others show where the readership is concentrated and how well a publication fits regional or language-specific campaigns. The framework also includes indicators designed to capture signals that traffic alone cannot explain.

For example, Unique Score separates outlets with a stable audience from those driven mostly by short bursts of attention. Reading Behavior highlights where people spend time with content and where they simply pass through. Reprints and a corresponding Reprints Score track how original coverage echoes through aggregators and help identify strong syndication networks.

“We also introduced two summary scores,” said Sofia Belotskaia, product lead at Outset Media Index. “The General Score shows how an outlet performs overall, while the Convenience Score looks at the practical side of collaboration – editorial control, turnaround speed, coverage options and price-to-reach alignment. The idea is to make it possible for users to see both the actual performance of a publication and the realities of working with it without having to dig through dozens of separate indicators.”

Among other things, OMI reflects the discovery layer forming around AI, surfacing outlets that receive traffic from LLM-driven interfaces.

If AI answers the question, who clicks the article?

Across the publishing industry, AI-generated answers now appear directly inside search results. Users no longer need to click through to websites for information. The change raises an uncomfortable question: what happens when search stops sending readers?

Some findings suggest referrals from search engines could fall by as much as 43% over the next three years as AI summaries and chat-style tools increasingly answer questions directly on the results page. 

The Guardian recently cited data showing that search traffic to news sites has already fallen by roughly a third in the past year, and AI-generated overviews are showing up in about 10% of search results in the United States.

For publishers that spent years building strategies around search visibility, the change is impossible to ignore. If readers no longer need to click through to a story to get information, the click itself becomes a less reliable signal of where attention is actually going.

“Since AI answers started replacing links, the way we look at media performance has had to change as well,” said Mike Ermolaev, founder of Outset Media Index and Outset PR. “That’s the kind of environment OMI is meant to help people navigate.”

When discovery changes, measurement follows

For now, Outset Media Index enters the industry conversation as an early attempt to make sense of ongoing media shifts. The platform offers one way of analyzing how media attention moves today – not only through traffic, but through engagement, distribution and the practical dynamics of working with outlets.

What that approach ultimately becomes will depend on how the system develops from here. The soft launch will reveal how the index may grow into a broader reference point for teams working in a complex, high-cost media landscape where the path between a story and its audience is becoming less direct.

Crypto just entered America’s retirement accounts, and $10 trillion in long-term capital is now in play. VanEck’s move to embed digital-asset ETPs in 401(k) plans isn’t a headline to scroll past.

Retirement capital is slow, sticky, and recurring, exactly the demand that builds durable price floors over years. With a Trump executive order clearing the regulatory path, this is the opening of a pipeline that could dwarf every ETF inflow record set so far.

But 401(k) exposure to crypto ETPs won’t deliver 100x returns. It’s designed to preserve and grow capital slowly at scale. That’s the institutional trade. The early-stage trade looks different.

DeepSnitch AI has already surged 191% in presale and has a TGE confirmed for March 31st on Uniswap.

As VanEck raises the floor across the board, the highest leverage sits in what that capital hasn’t priced in yet. DSNT is still that asset, and the DeepSnitch AI price prediction looks at 100x returns from now.

VanEck brings crypto ETFs to 401(k) plans

VanEck has made its digital asset ETPs available through Basic Capital, a fintech 401(k) provider, marking one of the first moves to embed crypto-focused products directly into US employer-sponsored retirement accounts.

The development follows a Trump executive order directing federal agencies to expand alternative asset access in 401(k) plans, reversing prior Labor Department guidance that had effectively blocked crypto from retirement accounts.

The scale of the opportunity is substantial. US 401(k) plans hold roughly $10 trillion in assets, and with nearly half of participants increasing contributions in 2024, the pool of potential crypto exposure is enormous.

For crypto markets, this is a structural demand story. Retirement capital is long-term, recurring, and largely passive, precisely the inflow that could provide a durable bid beneath crypto prices over years, not months.

Top 3 cryptocurrencies to own in 2026

DeepSnitch AI price prediction: Analysts expect 100x returns

Here’s what the DeepSnitch AI price prediction case actually rests on. VanEck’s 401(k) integration means retirement capital starts flowing into crypto consistently, as a recurring structural bid.

That raises the floor for the entire market over the years. The assets that benefit most from a rising floor are the ones positioned to catch the demand before it arrives. DeepSnitch AI is at $0.04399 with the TGE on March 31st. Early buyers are already up 191% without a single exchange candle printed.

The 100x–300x post-launch DeepSnitch AI price predictions, with some analysts calling 1,000x before year-end, are grounded in a specific logic: a low-cap AI-native platform launching into a market where the total capital pool is structurally expanding. VanEck is opening the pipeline. DSNT goes live before that capital fully flows through it.

The staking program is live, with 42M+ tokens already locked, holders who’ve committed long-term rather than waiting to flip at listing.

Over $2M raised while most top altcoins, and even Bitcoin, bleed confirms the conviction is real. At this price, before the Uniswap listing and tier-1 CEX listings that follow, the entry is still genuinely early-stage. After March 31st, DeepSnitch AI isn’t.

Cardano trades below $0.3 while investors turn bullish

Cardano traded at $0.26 on March 11, up over 5% in three days and closing in on descending trendline resistance between $0.27 and $0.30.

The catalyst matters. Charles Hoskinson’s 2026 funding model proposes using treasury returns to buy ADA on the open market, a structural buyback mechanism that speculative momentum alone can’t replicate.

Derivatives tell a cautious story. Open Interest drops to $410 million. Funding rate flips positive to 0.0075%. Bulls return quietly, without conviction.

The chart sits in the same uncertain middle. ADA trades below the 50-day and 100-day EMAs near $0.29. RSI stays under 50. MACD fades near zero. Close above $0.29, and the recovery gains real traction. Lose $0.24, and this bounce unravels entirely.

Ethereum

Ethereum traded at $2,055 on March 11, holding above the 20-day EMA at $2,024. That level separates cautious optimism from renewed selling pressure.

What makes this setup unusual is the disconnect between network activity and price. Daily active addresses hit a record 2 million in February, double the 2021 bull market peak. Total contract calls surpassed 40 million daily. The network thrives. The price doesn’t.

ETH shed over 50% in four months. CryptoQuant analysts point to the mechanism: realized capitalization growth turned negative, and ETH exchange inflows outpace Bitcoin’s. Capital leaves while usage climbs.

Reclaim $2,108, and $2,389 comes next. Lose the 20-day EMA, and $1,741 arrives fast, with $1,524 and $1,405 waiting beneath it.

Closing thoughts

VanEck is routing retirement capital into crypto, building the structural floor that benefits the entire market over the years. Early DeepSnitch AI investors are already up 191%, without waiting for a 401(k) to do it for them.

The presale closes March 31st, with Uniswap and tier-1 exchange listings to follow. At $0.04399, the entry is still early-stage, with a massive DeepSnitch AI price prediction.

A $30,000 position with the bonus campaign enters launch day worth $90,000 in tokens, and if the 100x projections land, that math rewrites portfolios entirely.

Visit the official website for more information, and join X and Telegram for community updates.

FAQs

What is the DeepSnitch AI price target analysts are projecting ahead of its March 31st launch?

The DeepSnitch AI price predictions range from 100x to 300x post-launch, with some analysts projecting 1,000x before year-end. The case rests on a low-cap AI-native platform launching into a market where VanEck’s 401(k) integration is structurally expanding the total capital pool.

What does the DeepSnitch AI forecast look like heading into Q2 2026?

Bullish. As VanEck’s retirement capital pipeline opens and raises the market floor, the highest leverage sits in pre-listing assets that institutional money hasn’t yet priced in. DSNT is still that asset.

What is the DeepSnitch AI market outlook compared to Cardano and Ethereum right now?

Cardano’s buyback mechanism and Ethereum’s network strength are credible long-term stories. DeepSnitch AI’s March 31st TGE is a fixed, near-term catalyst at $0.04399 with uncapped staking yields and a post-launch price structure that neither large-cap asset can replicate.

Disclaimer: This is a Press Release provided by a third party who is responsible for the content. Please conduct your own research before taking any action based on the content.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is signaling support for streamlined “minimum effective dose” disclosure rules and tightly scoped equity‑tokenization pilots via an innovation exemption, according to new remarks from Chair Paul S. Atkins.

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is signaling support for streamlined disclosure rules and controlled experiments with equity tokenization, according to a new speech by Chair Paul S. Atkins at the agency’s Investor Advisory Committee meeting.​

SEC chair pushes “minimum effective dose” regulation

Atkins focused first on cutting what he called unnecessary disclosure burdens, arguing for a “minimum effective dose” approach to regulation that keeps rules tightly centered on material information and adapts requirements to company size. He also proposed extending the JOBS Act “IPO on‑ramp” regime, giving small and mid-size firms a longer glide path with scaled reporting so that more issuers are willing to go public.​

On tokenization, Atkins took a more openly experimental stance, arguing that turning equity securities into digital tokens can improve settlement efficiency, reduce settlement risk, and strip out unnecessary intermediaries. He revealed that the SEC is considering an “innovative exemption mechanism” to allow limited trading of specific tokenized securities, using tightly scoped pilots to build experience for a long-term regulatory framework.​

That approach would effectively let tokenized equity projects move forward under controlled conditions, rather than waiting for a full top‑down rule overhaul. For crypto markets, the message is clear: the SEC is not ready to rewrite securities law for tokenization, but it is prepared to grant targeted exemptions that could bring regulated, on‑chain equity settlement closer to reality.

Anchorage Digital has integrated with Puffer Finance to give institutional clients access to Ethereum liquid restaking through its custody platform.

According to Thursday’s announcement, institutions can stake Ether held with Anchorage and receive Puffer’s liquid restaking token, pufETH, directly into their accounts. The token represents a restaked ETH (ETH) position that can be transferred or deployed across supported onchain applications while continuing to earn staking and restaking rewards.

Institutions using the platform can participate in restaking without running validators or managing staking infrastructure themselves.

The integration allows clients to access Puffer’s restaking protocol while keeping assets within Anchorage’s custody and governance framework, avoiding the need to move funds across multiple platforms.

Anchorage said the integration is part of a broader effort to expand institutional access to onchain services through its platform, including staking, restaking, governance and settlement.

Anchorage Digital is a crypto custody company headquartered in San Francisco that operates the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States.

In January, the company was reported to be seeking between $200 million and $400 million in new funding as it explores a potential initial public offering sometime next year.

Related: Sharplink reports $735M loss in 2025 as Ethereum slumped

Liquid restaking expands across Ethereum ecosystem

Restaking has emerged as a new layer of activity in proof-of-stake networks such as Ether, allowing already staked tokens to be reused to secure additional decentralized services while generating additional rewards.

In liquid restaking systems, staked Ether is represented by a tradable token that can be reused through restaking protocols to help secure additional decentralized services.

Much of the restaking ecosystem has developed around EigenLayer, a protocol launched by Eigen Labs that enables staked Ether or liquid staking tokens to secure additional onchain services beyond the Ethereum network.

Over the past few years, liquid restaking has grown into a multibillion-dollar sector within the Ethereum ecosystem. According to data from DefiLlama, protocols offering liquid restaking collectively hold about $7.2 billion in total value locked (TVL).

The sector is dominated by ether.fi with around $5.6 billion in TVL, followed by Kelp DAO with about $1 billion and Renzo with roughly $217 million. Puffer Finance, the protocol integrated by Anchorage Digital, currently manages around $62 million in restaked Ether.

Ethereum treasury companies are also increasingly exploring these strategies to generate yield from their Ether holdings. In October, SharpLink Gaming said it planned to deploy $200 million worth of Ether from its corporate treasury across staking and restaking strategies through ether.fi and EigenCloud on Linea.

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