The reported acquisition comes at a time when demand for Ethereum staking is increasing, with greater than 30% of ETH supply locked and validator wait times exceeding 70 days.
Bitwise Asset Management is reportedly acquiring institutional staking provider Chorus One, expanding its push into cryptocurrency yield services.
The acquisition adds a key investment operation to the crypto asset manager's platform as demand for on-chain yield products increases amongst each retail and institutional investors.
According to its website, Chorus One provides staking services for decentralized networks and currently has roughly $2.2 billion in assets staked.
The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing statements from each firms.
Cointelegraph reached out to Bitwise and Chorus One for comment but didn’t receive a response by publication time.
The demand for Ethereum staking is increasing because the queue of validators continues to grow
Ethereum validator queue data shows a rise in demand for staking Ether (ETH). The sign-up queue has grown to over 4 million ETH, a wait of over 70 days.
Nearly 37 million ETH, or simply over 30% of the full supply, is now staked, with nearly 1 million energetic validators securing the network. This suggests that despite long delays, increasingly holders are selecting to lock ETH.
Ethereum validator queue. Source: ValidatorQueue
Rising interest in staking has prompted other major asset managers to integrate returns into regulated crypto products. Morgan Stanley filed to launch a spot Ether exchange-traded fund (ETF) that might deploy a portion of its holdings to generate passive returns. Grayscale can also be preparing to distribute staking rewards from its Ethereum Trust ETF, the primary payout tied to on-chain staking of a U.S.-listed product traded on a spot crypto exchange.
Crypto M&A hits record
Bitwise's deal also follows a surge in mergers and acquisitions within the crypto industry in 2025, reaching $8.6 billion in a record 133 transactions through November, surpassing the full from the previous 4 years.
Coinbase led the wave, completing six acquisitions, including its $2.9 billion purchase of crypto derivatives exchange Deribit.
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