Gitcoin Launched a Liquid Staked $ETH Index, gtcETH

Gitcoin, an organization that supports the funding of open-source software, has received initial liquidity for its Staked $ETH Index (gtcETH) after a successful community vote. The gtcETH is the first on-chain offering that enables holders to earn rewards from a diverse set of liquid staking tokens while simultaneously supporting the funding of digital public goods.

The gtcETH is built on Index Coop's EVM-based protocol and is composed of three tokens from the top liquid staking protocols on Ethereum, including Lido, Rocket Pool, and StakeWise. These three liquid staking protocols were chosen based on several factors, including having a minimum of $25 million secondary market liquidity on Ethereum's mainnet and being open-source.

One of the motivations behind the gtcETH is the unpredictability associated with funding digital public goods, such as open-source code, blockchain, or open data sets. Without a clear profit motive, the funding for these goods is sometimes difficult to secure.

If the new index attracts users, it could provide a consistent revenue stream for Gitcoin to fund grants. Token holders of gtcETH incur an annualized streaming fee of 2%, with 1.75% going to the Gitcoin decentralized autonomous organization (DAO) and the remaining amount to Index Coop. According to Index Coop's snapshot vote, if gtcETH had a total value locked of $1 million, it would contribute roughly $17,500 a year to Gitcoin Grants, placing the index in the top ten in Gitcoin's Funders Leaderboard.