USDBNY Taps Galaxy to Add Institutional Crypto Staking
Planned service would combine custody and staking without requiring clients to move assets
TL;DR
- BNY and Galaxy plan to add staking capabilities to BNY’s Digital Asset Custody platform.
- Eligible institutions could earn proof-of-stake rewards while keeping assets within BNY’s custody environment.
- Galaxy will provide the staking infrastructure, while the service remains subject to regulatory review.
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BNY and Galaxy announced on Aug. 4, 2026, that they are collaborating on an institutional crypto staking service for BNY’s Digital Asset Custody platform. The planned offering would allow eligible clients to earn staking rewards without transferring their digital assets to a separate provider, but it remains subject to regulatory review and is not yet operational.
Galaxy will provide the staking infrastructure and serve as a design partner for the service. BNY would retain the institutional custody relationship while integrating access to proof-of-stake participation into the platform clients already use to hold digital assets.
Eligible institutional clients would be able to stake assets held through BNY’s custody platform. Their assets would contribute to the operation and security of proof-of-stake blockchain networks while generating protocol rewards.
The proposed structure is intended to remove the need for institutions to shift assets into a separate custody arrangement before participating in staking. Clients would instead access Galaxy’s infrastructure through BNY’s existing digital-asset environment.
Carolyn Weinberg, BNY’s chief product and innovation officer, said clients increasingly expect digital-asset custodians to provide services beyond storage.
“As digital assets continue to evolve, clients want more than safekeeping alone — they want a broader set of capabilities delivered through an institutional-grade model,” Weinberg said.
BNY Expands Beyond Digital-Asset Safekeeping
BNY has been expanding its blockchain operations since launching digital-asset custody services in 2022. The Galaxy collaboration would extend that business from holding digital assets into supporting direct participation in proof-of-stake networks.
The staking plan forms part of a broader expansion of BNY’s digital-asset infrastructure. The bank has also moved to support blockchain-based transfer-agency record-keeping, stablecoin custody and tokenized-fund servicing.
The week before the staking announcement, BNY said it was moving transfer-agency record-keeping onto blockchain. The system is intended to establish a single onchain ownership ledger and reduce reliance on intermediaries involved in fund administration.
BNY plans to use that infrastructure for tokenized investment funds, including a U.K.-regulated fund from Baillie Gifford. BlackRock and other firms are also expected to adopt the transfer-agency system.
The transfer-agency initiative gives BNY another role in blockchain-based finance beyond custody. The bank would maintain ownership records for tokenized funds while providing institutions with servicing infrastructure connected to the assets.
BNY is also expanding its stablecoin services by making Circle’s USDC the first stablecoin supported through its Digital Asset Custody platform. Institutional clients can use the service to custody USDC and convert it to or from U.S. dollars through Circle.
Together, the staking collaboration, stablecoin support and transfer-agency infrastructure place custody, blockchain-based ownership records, tokenized-fund servicing and proof-of-stake participation within BNY’s expanding institutional digital-asset business.
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Custody-Based Staking Targets Direct Asset Holders
The planned BNY service is structured for institutions that directly own and custody digital assets. It differs from obtaining staking exposure through an exchange-traded product, where investors hold securities linked to underlying assets and associated rewards.
Morgan Stanley launched Ethereum and Solana exchange-traded products with staking at the end of July, providing another institutional route to proof-of-stake exposure. BNY’s proposed model would instead allow eligible custody clients to generate rewards from assets held directly through the bank’s platform.
Under the collaboration, Galaxy would handle the specialized infrastructure required for blockchain participation. BNY would integrate that capability with its institutional custody and client-service framework.
Proof-of-stake rewards can vary according to network rules, validator performance, issuance levels and the total amount of assets participating in staking. Access to staked assets may also depend on protocol-specific withdrawal queues, validator exit procedures or unbonding periods.
Validator uptime is another operational factor because weak performance or outages can reduce rewards. Certain proof-of-stake networks may also impose slashing penalties when validators violate protocol rules or experience specified operational failures.
The service’s launch remains dependent on regulatory review. Its final structure will determine how institutional clients access staking through BNY and how Galaxy’s infrastructure is integrated into the custody platform.
This article has been refined and enhanced by ChatGPT.
