Tau Protocol – a staking platform for Bitcoin hashrate tokens – is now live, offering an alternative way to invest in bitcoin mining.

Standard Hashrate Group’s newest project enables staking of the Bitcoin Standard Hashrate Token (BTCST) on the Tau Protocol for staking rewards in either bitcoin or the synthetic tBitcoin. The latter is equivalent in value to the top cryptocurrency by market value, according to the startup.

BTCST first launched in December and is backed by Genesis Mining, Binance Pool, Atlas Mining and others, comprising a claimed 12% of the global hash rate, the processing power on the Bitcoin network.

Similar to other hashrate tokens, BTCST is a synthetic asset which derives its value from a portion of Bitcoin's mining hash power. Each BTCST currently represents 0.1 TH/s of mining power and garners real cash flows from bitcoin mining. It enables hash power to be traded on BSC-based exchanges like 1Inch.

Now, those tokens can also be staked on Tau Protocol for further earnings in synthetic assets.

“We believe BTCST has connected bitcoin mining to the [decentralized finance] world,” Atlas Mining CEO Tony Ma said in a statement. “With BTCST, we can first earn real BTC via DeFi-native staking. Now, we can stake BTCST to earn synthetic proof-of-work assets. This is a logical step for BTCST as the bridge for Bitcoin to enter DeFi.”

See also: Valid Points: Ethereum’s Proof-of-Stake May Happen Sooner Than You Think

The hashrate token market remains immature overall, according to a recent report from Galaxy Digital Mining. Only a few mining pools have hashrate tokens, such as Poolin and Binance Pool, and they remain only a drip in the crypto market bucket. 

For example, the Poolin token, pBTC35a, has a market cap of only $23.4 million at press time, according to CoinGecko. Yet, a “clear trend” of crypt mining financialization is underway, the report adds, such as with the BTCSH token and hashrate token staking.

“BTCST expands the bitcoin ecosystem and ... has the potential to add a lot of value to the DeFi universe,” Genesis Mining COO Rene Hennen said in a statement.