Figment manages $2.4 billion in Ethereum staking custody

Figment expands institutional validator services

Figment manages $2.4 billion in Ethereum staking custody following its October 2026 expansion of institutional validator services. This expansion supports 1,500 institutional clients, including asset managers, exchanges, wallets, foundations, and large token holders. Morgan Stanley Investment Management selected Figment as a staking provider for its Morgan Stanley Ethereum Trust (MSSE) and Morgan Stanley Solana Trust (MSOL). These funds integrate staking from launch day and intend to pass 95% of staking rewards to shareholders. MSSE intends to stake between 50% and 80% of its ETH holdings, while MSOL intends to stake up to 100% of its SOL holdings.

The partnership with Ripple scales institutional staking strategies across networks like Ethereum and Solana. This collaboration combines Ripple Custody’s digital asset custody with Figment’s non-custodial staking infrastructure. The solution allows institutions to access staking without the complexity of building inhouse infrastructure. Figment joined the Blockchain Association to influence U.S. crypto policy and advocate for protocol staking in exchange-traded products. Jennie Levin, the Chief Regulatory and Strategy Officer at Figment, says protocol staking provides the backbone for blockchain security. Figment acts as a genesis validator on both the Ethereum and Solana networks and maintains SOC 2 Type II and ISO 27001 certifications.

Yield economics and market comparisons

The 3.8% net yield premium over Coinbase Prime’s liquid staking alternative makes Figment a preferred choice for institutional investors. While liquid staking ETH on DeFi platforms like Lido or Rocket Pool delivers 3 to 5 percent APY, Figment’s infrastructure targets higher efficiency. Coinbase liquid staking products typically take a fee cut of 15% to 25% from the rewards. Figment provides non-custodial staking and portfolio reward tracking for its clients. You must consider the inflation rate when evaluating these yields.

Centralized exchanges like Binance, Kraken, and OKX provide staking yields between 2% and 8% for beginners. These platforms abstract away complexity but involve custodial risk. Ethereum provides one of the strongest real yields because its low inflation means most tokens earned constitute genuine profit. In contrast, Cosmos and Polkadot provide higher nominal rates, but high inflation reduces those returns. For example, Cosmos inflation runs at approximately 12%, which reduces real returns to 3% to 8%. Polkadot requires a 28-day unbonding period, and Cosmos requires a 21-day unbonding period. Solana inflation runs at about 5%, which reduces real yield to 1.5% to 2.8%, though Solana inflation decreases by 15% annually.

SEC custody rule amendments

The SEC proposed amendments to the custody rules under the Investment Company Act and the Advisers Act on October 1, 2026. These rules permit registered investment advisers to maintain crypto assets with state trust companies subject to diligence requirements. The proposal allows adviser self-custody of crypto assets only when no qualified custodian is available for a particular asset. Advisers must document the unavailability of a custodian every quarter. The regulatory proposal states that advisers must establish extensive safeguarding and compliance arrangements, including two-person controls and independent control reports, if they choose to use self-custody for crypto assets.

The proposal also addresses the requirements for regulated funds. Boards of regulated funds must regularly assess the adequacy of safeguarding arrangements and designate personnel to access private key materials. The SEC framework aims to alleviate challenges faced by advisers regarding crypto-related investment advice. The proposal follows the 2025 withdrawal of the 2023 safeguarding proposal. This new framework maintains the existing coverage for client funds or securities. The SEC also includes a new custody rule exception for advisers exercising discretionary trading authority. This exception allows for transactions that do not settle on a delivery-versus-payment basis. Will regulators permit these liquid staking models to expand further into traditional brokerage accounts?

Ethereum network conditions and supply

Ethereum’s main chain remains inexpensive in October 2026 because most user activity moved to layer 2 networks. The base fee averaged around 0.075 gwei in a sample of 1,024 blocks. Total validator balances on the beacon chain reached 44.2 million ETH on October 15, 2026. This amount constitutes about 36 percent of the total supply. The supply of ETH grew by 86,418 ETH over the last 30 days, which is a yearly growth of 0.86 percent.

The exit queue for Ethereum validators saw a jump from 166,000 ETH on September 29 to 850,000 ETH by October 2. This movement followed a security incident with MetaMask Staking on September 30. Ethereum’s market value sits near $299 billion based on a supply of 122,129,807 ETH and a price of $2,450. The current price of ETH fluctuated between $2,415 and $2,504 on October 14. US spot ether ETFs held $15.83 billion in net assets on October 13, 2026. Corporate treasuries hold more ETH than the ETFs, with BitMine Immersion reporting 6,028,946 ETH as of October 11, 2026. SharpLink holds about 869,000 ETH.