Ripple is significantly enhancing its institutional custody offerings by integrating staking services for major proof-of-stake cryptocurrencies, Ethereum and Solana. This strategic expansion is designed to meet the sophisticated demands of banks, custodians, and regulated asset managers who seek not just secure safekeeping but also yield-generating opportunities from their digital asset holdings within a compliant and controlled framework.
Revolutionizing Institutional Staking with Figment Partnership
Through a key partnership with staking infrastructure provider Figment, Ripple Custody clients can now access staking on Ethereum and Solana without the operational complexities of setting up their own validator infrastructure. This service is meticulously crafted to offer operational simplicity while adhering to rigorous institutional controls, a critical balance for regulated entities. The selection of Figment underscores the industry's priority on attributes like separation of duties, robust operational assurance, and an auditable framework, further reinforced by Figment's NORS certification, which aligns with the stringent due diligence checklists of traditional finance. This integration aims to transform staking from a complex infrastructure project into a seamless custody workflow, bundling services under a controlled operating model with clear accountability.
XRP's Distinct Role and the Institutional DeFi Vision
Notably, this move highlights a fundamental difference between XRP and proof-of-stake assets: XRP does not currently offer protocol-level staking rewards. While the Ripple ecosystem is exploring potential native staking mechanisms for the XRP Ledger (XRPL), any such implementation would necessitate a significant economic redesign rather than a simple upgrade, and it is not currently in an active deployment phase. Despite this, XRP continues to attract strong institutional inflows, indicating a distinct demand for its unique utility. Ripple explicitly states that adding staking for other networks does not diminish XRP's importance. Instead, XRP is strategically positioned within Ripple's "Institutional DeFi" roadmap as a high-performance infrastructure asset for tokenized finance, facilitating roles like reserve requirements, transaction fees (which burn XRP), and auto-bridging in foreign exchange and lending flows. This multi-asset custody approach allows institutions to leverage yield from Ethereum and Solana within a controlled environment, while utilizing XRPL rails for high-performance, compliance-forward on-chain activity.
