BNY Mellon adds crypto staking to digital asset custody platform

BNY Mellon, the 240-year-old institution that predates the US Constitution, is adding crypto staking capabilities to its digital asset custody platform. The bank, which already holds and transfers Bitcoin and Ether for institutional clients, is expanding into a service that lets those same clients earn rewards on their holdings. From safekeeping to yield generation BNY Mellon launched its Digital Asset Custody platform on October 11, 2022, initially supporting Bitcoin and Ether for a select group of institutional clients. The setup was straightforward: hold crypto, transfer crypto, do it all within a regulated framework that pension funds and asset managers actually feel comfortable with. BNY established its Digital Assets Unit back in February 2021, right in the middle of the last bull market’s institutional FOMO wave. The institutional custody chess match BNY isn’t operating in a vacuum. The bank has already positioned itself as a critical piece of infrastructure across several corners of the digital asset ecosystem. It serves as the primary custodian for Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin reserves and has supported BlackRock’s BUIDL tokenized fund, which involves short-term Treasury inst...