Wall Street’s Custody Giant BNY Wants In on Staking Rewards — Here’s Why That’s Big
BNY is adding crypto staking to its custody platform with Galaxy's help, a sign institutions want the same yield everyday holders already earn.
BNY, the custody bank formerly known as Bank of New York Mellon, said on Tuesday it plans to let big institutional clients earn staking rewards directly through the same platform where their crypto is already held in custody. The bank is teaming up with crypto financial services firm Galaxy (GLXY), which will supply the staking infrastructure and act as a design partner as BNY grows its blockchain services.
If you’ve ever staked coins on an exchange or in a wallet to earn a bit of extra yield, you already understand the basic idea BNY is now bringing to Wall Street. Staking means locking up certain crypto assets to help run and secure a blockchain network, and in return you get paid rewards. What’s new here is that a bank overseeing tens of trillions of dollars in client assets wants to offer that same reward without clients ever having to move their coins to a separate staking provider.
Why moving your coins usually matters
For everyday holders, sending crypto from a custody account to a staking service is just a few taps. For a pension fund, insurance company or asset manager holding billions in digital assets, moving tokens off a trusted custodian and onto another platform adds risk, paperwork and compliance headaches. BNY’s pitch is that institutions can stake directly from custody, cutting out that extra step and, in theory, the extra risk that comes with it.
That’s a meaningful shift. It signals that some of the most conservative money managers in the world — the kind that answer to regulators and shareholders, not crypto Twitter — are comfortable enough with staking to want it built into their everyday banking relationship. According to the announcement, the new staking feature is still pending regulatory approval before it goes live.
Part of a bigger blockchain push
This isn’t BNY’s first move into crypto. The bank launched digital asset custody services back in 2022 and has been steadily expanding since. It has also said it is shifting its core transfer agency record-keeping onto blockchain technology, aiming to create a single onchain ownership ledger that reduces the need for multiple middlemen in tracking who owns what.
BNY has additional plans on the calendar too: the bank intends to test tokenized U.S. Treasuries on a private blockchain before the end of this year, with a goal of offering around-the-clock settlement for both traditional and tokenized Treasuries starting in 2027. Taken together, staking, tokenized bonds and blockchain-based record-keeping point to a bank trying to rebuild large chunks of its plumbing around crypto-style infrastructure.
What it means for regular crypto holders
None of this directly changes how much yield you earn on your own staked ETH or SOL tonight. But it does matter for the bigger picture. When a bank of BNY’s size builds staking into its core custody product, it adds legitimacy to an activity that regulators have sometimes eyed with suspicion, and it opens the door for pension funds, insurers and other deep-pocketed players to hold and stake crypto the same way they hold stocks and bonds.
More institutional demand for staking-eligible assets like Ethereum or Solana could, over time, mean more steady buying pressure and deeper liquidity for those networks — good news for holders who like knowing big, boring money is quietly showing up alongside them. It’s also a reminder that staking, once a niche feature for hands-on crypto users, is becoming a mainstream financial product with Wall Street’s blessing.
Read more: BitMine Just Locked Up Most of Its $11B Ethereum Stash — What That Signals for ETH Holders
