BNY Adds Figment as Second Staking Provider for Institutions
BNY has named Figment as a validator provider for staking on its Digital Asset Custody platform, giving the world's largest custodian bank a second route into a service it first opened to institutions through Galaxy in August 2026. For eligible clients, the practical effect is straightforward: they can now stake supported digital assets held at BNY without moving those assets out of custody, using Figment's infrastructure alongside the servicing workflows they already run through the bank.
That detail, a second named provider within four months, is the part worth reading past the announcement. BNY appears to be assembling a panel of validator operators rather than simply switching staking on, and the choice of who runs the infrastructure is becoming the competitive question.
What is BNY actually changing for institutional clients?
Eligible clients, including asset managers, exchange-traded fund issuers, corporates and wealth management firms, will be able to stake supported assets held on BNY's Digital Asset Custody platform, with Figment running the underlying validator infrastructure. Staking is the mechanism by which proof-of-stake assets earn rewards for helping to secure a network. The point of the arrangement is that the rewards accrue without the asset leaving the custody chain, the step that has historically forced regulated institutions to choose between earning a yield and keeping assets inside a compliant environment.
The scale behind the offering is the reason it matters. As of 30 June 2026, BNY oversees roughly 62.6 trillion dollars in assets under custody and administration and 2.2 trillion dollars under management, making it the largest custodian bank in the world. It launched its Digital Asset Custody platform in October 2022, initially for bitcoin and ether, and has since widened its blockchain activity to stablecoin custody, tokenised fund servicing and blockchain-based transfer agency.
Why is BNY lining up a second staking provider?
Because validator infrastructure, not the concept of staking, is where institutional risk now sits. BNY first added staking to its custody platform through Galaxy in August 2026, with Galaxy also acting as a design partner for the bank's wider digital asset platform. Bringing in Figment gives BNY a second validator operator rather than a single point of dependence, which matters for a custodian whose clients expect redundancy and provider choice as a baseline, not a feature.
Figment is an established pick for that role. The firm, founded in 2018 and based in Toronto, describes itself as the largest non-custodial staking provider for Ethereum and Solana, and says it serves more than 1,500 institutions. By its own reporting it held over 18 billion dollars in assets under stake as of October 2025. Its validator infrastructure already sits behind staking at Coinbase Prime, Ripple Custody and the Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products run by Morgan Stanley Investment Management. For BNY, selecting a provider with that institutional footprint is a lower-risk way to broaden its own panel than building validator operations in house.
What changed in the rules to make this possible?
The accounting treatment that kept large banks out of digital asset custody was removed in early 2025. On 23 January 2025, the Securities and Exchange Commission issued Staff Accounting Bulletin No. 122, rescinding the earlier SAB 121 guidance that had required custodians to record clients' crypto holdings as liabilities on their own balance sheets. That rule made custody capital-intensive and, for many banks, uneconomic. Its removal is a large part of why a custodian of BNY's size is now able to extend custody into staking at all.
Demand has moved in step with the rules. The first United States Ethereum exchange-traded fund with staking has already launched, and spot Solana staking funds followed, with Bitwise's product debuting on 28 October 2025. That is why ETF issuers sit on BNY's list of eligible clients: staking is increasingly embedded in the products institutions are bringing to market, and they need a custody partner that can service it.
What do the staking economics look like?
The yields are modest but real, and they vary sharply by network. Ethereum staking in 2026 has compressed to an all-in return in the region of 3 to 3.8 per cent as more of the supply has been locked up, while Solana has paid roughly 5.7 to 8 per cent, with about two-thirds of eligible SOL staked. Rewards depend on network rules, validator performance and uptime, and access to staked assets can be subject to unbonding periods and exit queues. For institutions, the attraction is a structural yield layered onto an existing allocation rather than a directional bet, which is precisely why custody-based staking has moved from a crypto-native product to a mainstream servicing line.
Why This Matters to FinanceX Readers
For treasury teams, asset managers and ETF issuers, the signal here is consolidation, not novelty. Staking inside custody is fast becoming a standard module across the large custodians, and BNY moving to a second provider in four months tells you the competitive edge is shifting from whether a bank offers staking to whose validator track record a risk committee will actually underwrite. When the mechanics are commoditised, provider selection, slashing protection and operational performance become the differentiators institutions should be scrutinising in due diligence.
Watch whether BNY continues to widen its validator panel, because the direction of travel suggests multi-provider staking will be the norm for tier-one custody rather than the exception.
