SKN | BNY Expands Institutional Digital Asset Custody With Figment Staking Partnership

Key Takeaways:

• BNY has partnered with Figment to integrate validator infrastructure into its Digital Asset Custody platform, enabling eligible institutional clients to stake supported digital assets through their existing custody arrangements.
• The service is intended for asset managers, ETF issuers, corporations and wealth management firms. Ether is expected to be supported first, followed by Solana.
• The agreement builds on BNY’s earlier staking collaboration with Galaxy, reinforcing the bank’s strategy of expanding institutional digital-asset services. No client launch date has been disclosed.

BNY is extending its institutional digital-asset custody proposition beyond safekeeping, partnering with blockchain infrastructure provider Figment to support staking through its existing platform. Announced on November 12, the collaboration is designed to allow eligible clients to earn staking rewards on supported digital assets held in BNY custody without transferring them to a separate staking platform. The development places the bank’s established custody and servicing infrastructure at the centre of another institutional digital-asset capability.

A Custody-Led Model With Figment Providing Validator Infrastructure

Under the arrangement, BNY will combine its Digital Asset Custody platform and institutional servicing framework with Figment’s validator infrastructure. Eligible clients include asset managers, exchange-traded fund issuers, corporations and wealth management firms. Figment will provide the technical infrastructure supporting staking, while BNY will provide the custody platform and associated institutional servicing.

Reporting by The Block, citing a Figment spokesperson, identified Ether (ETH) as the first asset expected to be supported, with Solana (SOL) to follow. Neither company disclosed a launch date. The announcement also did not specify fees, reward distribution arrangements or the complete list of eligible assets. These details will be important for institutions evaluating the operational requirements and economics of participation.

The structure addresses a central institutional requirement: accessing blockchain-based staking without fragmenting custody and servicing arrangements across multiple platforms. BNY’s Head of Digital Asset Custody, Ralf Roth, said the collaboration is intended to provide staking within a trusted custody framework, while maintaining the standards of security, oversight and accountability expected by institutional clients.

A Further Step in BNY’s Digital Asset Strategy

The Figment agreement is not BNY’s first staking-related collaboration. In August 2026, the bank announced a strategic partnership with Galaxy that also contemplated staking on its Digital Asset Custody platform. BNY stated at the time that its staking offering and related infrastructure enhancements were subject to regulatory review. The Figment agreement therefore represents a further development of an existing strategic direction rather than the bank’s initial entry into institutional staking.

BNY launched its Digital Asset Custody platform in 2022 and has continued to broaden its digital-asset capabilities. In October 2026, it expanded custody services for select institutional clients in the European Union under the Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework. The bank reported $62.6 trillion in assets under custody and/or administration as of June 30, 2026. While this figure reflects BNY’s broader servicing franchise rather than the scale of its digital-asset custody business, it illustrates the institutional infrastructure behind its expansion.

What Institutional Clients Should Assess Before Participation

For family offices, asset managers and other sophisticated investors, the significance lies in the potential to connect custody and staking through an established banking relationship. However, a bank-led interface does not eliminate the underlying risks of proof-of-stake networks. Institutions will still need to assess validator performance, protocol-specific penalties, liquidity conditions, reward treatment, tax reporting and the legal status of staking in each relevant jurisdiction.

The next indicators will be the service’s launch timetable, supported networks, eligibility criteria and the controls governing reward calculation and distribution. Until these terms are disclosed, the partnership should be viewed as an expansion of BNY’s institutional service architecture, not confirmation that staking is already available to every custody client. For a confidential discussion regarding digital-asset custody and cross-border wealth structures, contact our senior advisory team.