Ripple Custody just unlocked Ethereum and Solana staking, and institutions may finally get XRP yield without messy validator risk

Ripple Custody has expanded its services by enabling Ethereum and Solana staking for institutional clients through a partnership with staking infrastructure provider Figment. This move allows large investors, such as banks and asset managers, to earn staking rewards on these proof-of-stake assets while maintaining institutional controls and avoiding the operational complexities and risks associated with running their own validator infrastructure.

This new feature highlights a key difference: while Ethereum and Solana generate protocol rewards, XRP currently does not offer native protocol-level staking yield. This gap is significant for institutions accustomed to yield-generating assets. Discussions around native XRP Ledger (XRPL) staking are ongoing, but developers note that it would require a fundamental economic redesign to establish a sustainable rewards source, and no staking amendment is currently in the active development pipeline for XRPL.

Ripple maintains that adding staking for other assets does not diminish XRP's role. Instead, the company positions XRP as the central connective asset within its "Institutional DeFi" roadmap, used for reserve requirements, transaction fees, and auto-bridging. The strategy allows institutions to earn yield on ETH/SOL within the custody perimeter while utilizing the high-performance, compliance-focused XRPL rails for other activities.

(Source：CryptoSlate)