IOTA announces staking, two network tokens as a reward

As the year winds down, so do many alt coins. Investors might feel that the market is slow and there aren’t enough exciting price rallies to watch. However, that doesn’t mean growth is at a standstill. Projects and ecosystems are expanding, even during the holidays. One such example is IOTA.

‘Tis the season to stake

The crypto community was buzzing after IOTA announced that it was introducing staking. The official release from the data-and-value transfer platform stated,

“With the release of Firefly 1.3.0, the staking functionality is fully integrated and IOTA holders can start staking their IOTAs in return for SMR, the native token of the Shimmer network and ASMB, the native token of the Assembly network.”

Staking was open even at press time and there is a week-long pre-staking interval.

According to the release, those who stake can choose to claim their rewards in SMR tokens, ASMB tokens, or both. However, it’s important to note that the SMR and ASMB tokens’ networks are scheduled to launch next year.

Though there were minor technical glitches in the beginning, many began staking with no delay and reported their success.

So, what’s the takeaway here? Well, speed is a major factor to note. Assembly, a fee-less smart contract network was introduced in early December. Meanwhile, a pre-production version of Shimmer came in November. Now, stakers are ready to accept the ASMB and SMR tokens as rewards.

While this is rapid growth, investors need to wait until the launch next year to fully assess whether the rewards will work in their favor.

“IOTA” appreciate you

IOTA has fingers in many pies – DeFi, the Metaverse, Web3, and more. Despite this, however, the coin’s co-founder Dominik Schiener isn’t out to dethrone Ethereum. While agreeing with an Ethereum developer who called Ethereum a “cultural movement,”

“This is why my biggest respect goes to #Ethereum and the many teams, individuals that have created this amazing culture. Nothing can compare to Ethereum today”

So, by the sound of it, IOTA isn’t up to killing Ethereum any time soon.

More than a coin toss

How did IOTA’s MIOTA take the news of the staking launch? Changing hands at $1.28 at press time, the alt saw an impressive rally of 16.74% in 24 hours. Furthermore, it was the #44 largest crypto by market cap at press time.