Strategic Expansion: Ripple’s Bold Move into Ethereum and Solana Custody Services
San Francisco, April 2025: In a significant strategic evolution, Ripple, the enterprise blockchain and cryptocurrency solutions provider, has announced a major expansion of its institutional custody platform. The company is now offering staking services for Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL) to its regulated client base, a move that signals a deliberate push beyond its native XRP token. This development, facilitated through a partnership with institutional staking infrastructure provider Figment, directly addresses the growing demand from financial institutions seeking secure, compliant access to yield-generating crypto assets beyond Bitcoin.
Ripple’s Institutional Custody Platform Expands Beyond XRP
Ripple’s custody solution, launched initially to provide secure storage for XRP, has undergone a calculated transformation. The platform is designed for financial institutions, including banks, payment providers, and asset managers, who require enterprise-grade security, regulatory compliance, and insurance coverage for their digital asset holdings. By integrating Ethereum and Solana staking, Ripple is responding to clear market signals. Institutional portfolios are becoming increasingly diversified, and demand for yield on proof-of-stake assets has surged as the regulatory landscape for staking services clarifies in key jurisdictions like the United States and European Union.
The decision to partner with Figment, rather than build staking infrastructure in-house, is a strategic one. Figment is a leading player in the institutional staking space, providing services to over 200 clients and supporting more than 60 proof-of-stake networks. This partnership allows Ripple to leverage Figment’s established expertise, security protocols, and node infrastructure immediately, accelerating its time-to-market and ensuring a robust service offering from day one. For clients, this means access to non-custodial staking, where assets remain under Ripple’s custody while earning rewards, without the technical complexity or slashing risk associated with running validator nodes independently.
Analyzing the Ethereum and Solana Staking Integration
The choice of Ethereum and Solana is not arbitrary; it reflects a targeted approach to the two largest and most institutionally relevant proof-of-stake blockchains by market capitalization. Ethereum’s transition to proof-of-stake in 2022, known as “The Merge,” created the world’s largest staking market. Solana, known for its high throughput and low transaction costs, has also cultivated a strong developer ecosystem and institutional interest. By supporting these networks, Ripple’s custody platform now covers a substantial portion of the institutional digital asset market.
The technical and operational flow for clients is streamlined:
- Asset Custody: Client ETH or SOL is held in Ripple’s insured, cold storage-centric custody solution.
- Staking Delegation: Through the partnership with Figment, staking is initiated on the client’s behalf. Figment operates the validator nodes.
- Reward Distribution: Staking rewards are automatically credited to the client’s custody account, typically on a daily or weekly basis.
- Reporting & Compliance: Ripple provides detailed reporting for accounting, tax, and audit purposes, a critical feature for regulated entities.
This model mitigates key institutional concerns: counterparty risk (assets stay with Ripple), technical risk (Figment manages node operations), and regulatory uncertainty (the service is offered within existing compliance frameworks).
The Strategic Imperative: Diversification and Market Demand
This expansion must be viewed within the broader context of Ripple’s business strategy and the evolving cryptocurrency industry. For years, Ripple’s fortunes have been closely tied to XRP and its use case in cross-border payments. While that remains a core business, the company has steadily diversified its offerings, including RippleNet for payments and a Central Bank Digital Currency (CBDC) platform. Adding multi-asset custody and staking is a logical extension that transforms Ripple from a single-asset facilitator to a broader enterprise crypto infrastructure provider.
Market data underscores the logic. According to recent analysis from firms like Bernstein and JPMorgan, institutional allocation to crypto is shifting from a “Bitcoin-only” stance to a “smart beta” strategy, which includes major proof-of-stake assets like Ethereum for their yield potential. The total value locked in staking across all networks exceeds $100 billion, representing a significant revenue opportunity for service providers. By entering this space, Ripple is not just following demand; it is positioning itself to capture a share of the growing institutional staking fee economy, estimated to be worth billions annually.
Regulatory Considerations and Competitive Landscape
The launch of these services coincides with a period of increasing regulatory clarity for staking in the United States. Following the SEC’s settlement with Kraken in 2023, which distinguished between offer-and-sell securities violations and the staking service itself, a more nuanced framework has emerged. Services offered to accredited and institutional investors, with clear disclosures and non-custodial options, operate in a more defined space. Ripple’s existing focus on regulated entities and its partnership with Figment, which emphasizes compliance, is designed to navigate this environment carefully.
This move also places Ripple in direct competition with a new set of players. Traditional custody giants like Coinbase Custody (now Coinbase Institutional) and BitGo have offered multi-asset staking for years. Specialized fintech firms like Anchorage Digital and Fireblocks are also key competitors. Ripple’s differentiator lies in its deep integration with payment-focused financial institutions and its established reputation in that niche. The battle is no longer just about secure storage; it’s about providing a full-suite of financial services—custody, trading, lending, and staking—within a single, compliant platform.
Implications for XRP and the Broader Ecosystem
A natural question arising from this news is its impact on XRP. Company executives have consistently framed this as an additive strategy, not a replacement. The goal is to make Ripple’s platform indispensable to its clients by supporting the assets they want to hold. If institutions use Ripple to custody ETH and SOL, they may be more likely to use it for XRP and eventual other services, creating a network effect within the platform. Furthermore, success in custody and staking could provide Ripple with a more diversified and stable revenue stream, insulating it from volatility in any single asset or product line.
For the broader crypto industry, Ripple’s entry validates the institutional staking thesis. When a company of Ripple’s stature and regulatory experience commits resources to this sector, it signals maturity and longevity. It also raises the bar for security, compliance, and client service, pushing the entire institutional crypto infrastructure sector toward higher standards—a net positive for adoption.
Conclusion
Ripple’s expansion into Ethereum and Solana custody and staking services represents a pivotal and strategic broadening of its enterprise offering. By leveraging its established custody platform and partnering with Figment, Ripple is efficiently meeting demonstrable demand from regulated institutions seeking yield on major proof-of-stake assets. This move transcends a simple product addition; it reflects a strategic evolution for Ripple as it builds a more comprehensive and diversified crypto infrastructure business for the financial world. The success of this initiative will depend on execution, competitive positioning, and the continued maturation of the regulatory environment, but it undeniably marks a bold new chapter in Ripple’s journey beyond XRP.
FAQs
Q1: What exactly did Ripple announce?
Ripple announced it has expanded its institutional-grade cryptocurrency custody platform to include staking services for Ethereum (ETH) and Solana (SOL). This is offered through a partnership with the staking infrastructure company Figment.
Q2: Why is this move significant for Ripple?
It signals a strategic diversification beyond its native XRP token. Ripple is transforming from a payments-focused company using XRP into a broader enterprise crypto infrastructure provider, offering custody and financial services for multiple major digital assets.
Q3: Who can use these new staking services?
The services are targeted at Ripple’s existing client base of regulated financial institutions, such as banks, payment providers, and asset managers. They are not designed for retail investors.
Q4: How does the staking service work technically?
Client assets are held in Ripple’s custody. Ripple’s partner, Figment, handles the technical operation of validator nodes on the Ethereum and Solana networks. Rewards generated are automatically credited back to the client’s account with Ripple.
Q5: Does this mean Ripple is moving away from XRP?
Company statements indicate this is an expansion, not a pivot. The strategy is to support all assets its institutional clients want to hold, with XRP remaining a core part of its payments and liquidity offerings.
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