Institutional staking provider Chorus One is partnering with Nexus Mutual to bring insurance coverage for stakers on Ethereum.

The company will be one of the first node providers to purchase on-chain staking coverage from Nexus Mutual to protect its users from slashing, Hari Iyer, marketing manager at Chorus One told Blockworks.

Staking has been a relatively appealing source of income following the Shapella upgrade for institutional investors.

“Institutions are looking for a safe source of yield, but no matter how much protection you have, how good the infrastructure set up is, there can be incidents of downtime or slashing,” Iyer said.

Slashing is a penalty for validators who engage in dishonest or inactive behavior. Although it is extremely rare, penalties can be severe, Iyer explained.

Validators could lose a cut of their stake or be removed from a network completely if they are slashed.

“When staking your ETH, even with the best technical set-up and expertise, mistakes can happen and slashing can occur,” Hugh Karp the founder of Nexus Mutual said in a statement reviewed by Blockworks. “The most professional operators recognize this and put in place protection for their users.”

Nexus Mutual itself dedicates a portion of the ether in its capital pool to staking as a way to generate revenue for the DAO.

Chorus One will provide base coverage for all users who stake Ethereum through OPUS, its multi-chain staking API for institutions, until the end of this year. This measure aims to protect customers from potential slashing losses.

OPUS serves as a non-custodial staking solution that enables investors and institutions to stake their tokens securely. Additionally, institutions have the option to integrate OPUS into their products, allowing them to provide staking services to their customers.

“Our customers also have the option of going for an upgradable insurance cover on other networks outside of Ethereum as well,” Iyer said.

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