STADLER VÖLKEL Rechtsanwälte GmbH

STADLER VÖLKEL advises bitfly on Ethereum-denominated investments based on new reference rate ETH.STORE

17 August 2022
STADLER VÖLKEL advises bitfly on Ethereum-denominated investments based on new reference rate ETH.STORE

On 17 August 2022, bitfly staking gmbh published a capital markets prospectus for the continuous public offering of up to ETH 1 million floating rate investments pursuant to the Austrian Capital Market Act 2019. The prospectus was audited by Moore Interaudit GmbH. The issuer is part of the bitfly group, which operates the world's largest and highest performing Ethereum mining pool "Ethermine" with more than 200,000 active miners. The bitfly group also offers state-of-the-art blockchain explorers Etherchain and Beaconcha.in. The investments, which are marketed under the name "Ethermine Staking", are debt instruments that bear variable interest linked to a new reference rate called ETH.STORE. The investments are fully denominated in Ether, meaning that subscriptions and interest payments are made in Ether only.Ethereum "2.0"Ethereum 2.0 is the long-awaited upgrade to the Ethereum network that aims to improve energy efficiency and network scalability by replacing Ethereum's current proof-of-work consensus mechanism with proof-of-stake. In proof-of-stake, nodes called validators earn rewards by proposing new blocks and attesting to the most current state of the network. In contrast to proof-of-work, where miners compete for the right to add the next block to the blockchain, in proof-of-stake validators are pseudo-randomly selected to propose and attest blocks. Validators earn staking rewards and transaction fees for participating in the network. Participating on the Ethereum network as a validator requires 32 Ether, a computer with at least 1 terabyte of storage as well as a stable internet connection.ETH.STOREEthermine Staking investments are linked to the ETH.STORE. The Ethereum Staking Offered Rate is a reference rate that represents the average financial return validators on the Ethereum network have achieved in a 24-hour period. ETH.STORE is an objective and transparent reference rate that can be calculated by anyone interested; the ETH.STORE is published on the issuer's website. The source code used to calculate ETH.STORE has been made open source and is available on Github. Learn more about ETH.STORE in this article.The Law Firm Behind the ProjectSTADLER VÖLKEL, a law firm based in Vienna, Austria, advised the bitfly group on the development of the ETH.STORE and the structuring of the Bitfly Staking investments. "The Ethereum-based financial industry is growing rapidly. What is has been lacking so far is a true baseline reference rate such as the Euribor. Offering investments based on the ETH.STORE, as now shown by bitfly, fills this need." says Oliver Völkel, founding partner of STADLER VÖLKEL. "Congratulations to the bitfly team for reaching this milestone. Ethermine Staking is the first investment using ETH.STORE and there was certainly a learning curve with understanding how Ethereum's proof-of-stake consensus mechanism works. I am pleased that we were able to channel that knowledge into our work and ultimately deliver a quality product for the client," says Bryan Hollmann, U.S. counsel at STADLER VÖLKEL.

About STADLER VÖLKEL

STADLER VÖLKEL is a commercial law firm in Vienna, Austria that specializes in finance and capital market law. The firm provides comprehensive legal advice to crypto pioneers and established players on financing, capital markets and regulatory matters.

The advisory team consisted of Dr. Oliver Völkel, LL.M. (Columbia), founding partner whose focus includes banking, finance, and capital markets law as well as digital assets law, and Bryan Hollmann, Esq., LL.M., U.S. counsel who provided support in the areas of capital market law and U.S. securities law.

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