Inside the Zodia Solutions Ecosystem: Figment on enabling rewards on idle digital assets in custody

Digital assets held in custody can either sit idle, or they can be put to work

When a bank holds traditional assets in custody, those assets are put to work – cash earns interest, securities can be lent, and collateral generates financing revenue. Custody is not just a safekeeping arrangement; it is an active part of the institution’s economics.

Digital assets held in custody, by default, do none of this. For a bank building a digital asset custody offering, that creates a commercial problem: the custody service becomes a cost to be recovered through fees alone, rather than an infrastructure layer that generates its own revenue.

Staking changes that equation. Proof-of-Stake networks such as Ethereum and Solana offer participants who delegate assets to validators the potential to earn rewards. For institutions, the opportunity is significant: turn a passive custody service into an active revenue line, for the bank and for its clients.

Staking is economically critical in inflationary token models, as rewards are typically paid through newly issued tokens; holders who do not participate in staking are therefore diluted in relative ownership over time. Consequently, staking functions as a mechanism to secure the network and preserve economic value, not merely to generate a return.

But accessing staking rewards inside a regulated institution is harder to solve than it appears. Staking requires signing a transaction that delegates assets to a validator, which means it requires access to private keys. For a bank, that immediately opens the door to a number of risk, compliance and security questions: who can authorise a staking operation, under what conditions, to which validators, and with what controls? The options for accessing risk-adjusted rewards while preserving the compliance and security framework a bank requires are genuinely limited.

What Figment makes possible

Figment is an institutional staking infrastructure provider serving banks and regulated financial institutions globally. Its platform gives the full spectrum of financial institutions access to staking services designed to support institutional security and compliance requirements.

For a regulated institution, Figment makes it possible to treat staking as a product. That means an active revenue line embedded within an existing digital asset custody and wealth management offering, not a separate counterparty arrangement.

Banks can offer clients the opportunity to earn rewards on the digital assets, turning a passive custody service into an active portfolio management tool. The bank can stake assets from its own balance sheet and offer the same service to its end users. It can generate potential revenue from assets under management in the same way it would in any other asset class.

Critically, staking also strengthens the custody relationship itself. Assets generating rewards are stickier. Clients have a reason to keep their holdings in place rather than moving them elsewhere. For a bank, that translates directly into increased assets under custody, lower outflow rates, and deeper, more commercially valuable client relationships.

“Our partnership with Zodia has always been about serving regulated institutions at the highest level. Regulated institutions aren’t just approaching staking differently, they’re building on the foundation we laid.”

Eva Lawrence,
Head of Revenue, Figment

Why custody is where this belongs

Staking is not a passive process. It requires signing a transaction that delegates assets to a validator, and that means it requires the private keys. For a regulated institution, this creates a security and infrastructure requirement that cannot be resolved outside the custody layer.

The custody infrastructure determines who can authorise a staking operation, under what conditions, and to which validators. It enforces the approval workflows that regulators and auditors expect to see. It provides the audit trail that demonstrates the institution maintained control over the asset throughout the staking process. Without that, the institution has delegated assets to a third party without the risk framework that its own compliance requirements demand.

Staking does not require the client to transfer or relinquish their assets – they never leave the custody layer. The client retains full control throughout, with risk management, approval workflows, and audit trails enforced within their existing infrastructure. For a regulated institution building a digital asset product, that level of security and control is not a feature, it is a requirement.

“Staking requires access to keys. That makes it a governance question. A bank can’t offer staking as a product if it can’t govern the signing, and custody is where that governance exists. It’s exactly why Figment is part of the Zodia Solutions ecosystem.”

Anoosh Arevshatian,
Chief Product Officer, Zodia Custody

Where this is heading

Regulatory frameworks in key markets are moving toward explicit treatment of staking, with defined requirements for how institutions participate. As that clarity arrives, the question for regulated institutions shifts from whether to participate, to how to do it at scale, within the risk and compliance standards their regulators expect.

Over the next two to three years, staking is likely to become a standard component of institutional digital asset custody offerings, in the same way that cash management and securities lending became embedded in traditional custody products over time. The institutions that can offer the potential for rewards on digital assets from day one of a custody relationship are positioned to have a structural advantage over those that treat staking as an add-on to be procured separately.

The broader implication is that custody itself is evolving. The role of a custodian is no longer just to hold assets securely. It is to make those assets productive, within a governance framework that meets institutional standards, and to capture the economics of that productivity. Staking is one of the first and clearest examples of that evolution.

Zodia Solutions and Figment share a view of what this looks like at maturity: the infrastructure that enables institutions to put their clients’ assets to work, where the potential to earn rewards is a native capability of the infrastructure rather than a separate product bolted on, and where the bank captures the full value chain of the custody relationship. That future is already being built.

 

---

 

About Figment

Figment is the leading independent provider of staking infrastructure. Figment provides the complete staking solution for over 1,500 institutional clients including asset managers, exchanges, wallets, foundations, custodians, and large token holders, to earn rewards on their digital assets. Figment is the largest non-custodial staking provider of staked Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). Institutional staking services from Figment include seamless point-and-click staking, portfolio reward tracking, API integrations, audited infrastructure, and slashing protection. This all leads to Figment’s mission to support the adoption, growth, and long-term success of the digital asset ecosystem.

About Zodia Solutions

Zodia Solutions is an institutional digital asset infrastructure platform that enables financial institutions to design, deliver and grow digital asset services through trusted, bank-grade technology and infrastructure. With leading global banks among its shareholders, Zodia Solutions supports financial institutions worldwide.

Explore Solutions