BNY Adds Figment Validators to Digital Asset Custody

Figment says eligible institutional clients will be able to stake through BNY’s existing Digital Asset Custody service, using Figment validator infrastructure. The collaboration was announced by Figment on 12 November 2026. Neither Figment nor BNY named the supported assets, the fees, or a go-live date.

The same day, BNY published an insight article on institutional staking, dated 12 November 2026 at 13:00. It is not a press release. In that piece, BNY writes: “Client assets remain within BNY’s custody framework, while Galaxy and Figment provide validator infrastructure under BNY oversight.” Figment is therefore being added to a model that already includes another validator provider, not introduced as the only one.

How BNY Figment staking sits beside Galaxy

Figment said the offering will sit inside BNY’s existing Digital Asset Custody service, and that asset managers, ETF issuers, corporates, wealth management firms and other eligible institutional clients will be able to access staking for supported digital assets held on that platform. The client list is Figment’s. The phrase “supported digital assets” is not followed, in either text, by a list of those assets.

Ralf Roth, BNY’s head of Digital Asset Custody, used the Figment announcement to talk about delivery rather than access:

As institutional participation in staking grows, the focus is shifting from simply accessing staking to how it is delivered. Offering staking with Figment in a trusted custody framework can give institutions greater confidence in how they participate, while supporting the standards of security, oversight and accountability they expect from a global custodian.

Josh Deems, Figment’s head of revenue, said the collaboration gives institutional clients “another way to participate in staking using their existing platform and servicing workflows.” That wording is consistent with BNY’s own description of a custody framework that already has Galaxy as well as Figment under bank oversight.

The addition also sits in a line of BNY digital-asset work already covered by TSN, from the bank’s decision to custody XRP and Ripple’s RLUSD to a tokenized US Treasury note used in a triparty repo with Citadel Securities. Galaxy, named here as a validator provider, is the same firm whose third-quarter results TSN has also reported.

Figment’s “largest” line is its own claim

Figment describes itself in the announcement as “the largest non-custodial staking provider across both Ethereum and Solana.” That is a company claim. BNY’s insight article does not repeat it, and neither text gives market-share figures, a validator count or a breakdown by network that would let a reader test the line. Ethereum and Solana appear only in that self-description, not as a confirmed list of assets that will be stakeable on BNY’s platform.

BNY’s article is more interested in the operating model than in a league table. It says staking adds “new operational dependencies,” including validator infrastructure, reward settings, access controls and incident response, and that a disruption in any of those areas can affect staking operations even when the underlying custody controls remain intact. It also describes itself as “the first U.S. G-SIB to offer Digital Asset Custody.” That first-mover line is BNY’s own claim on an insight page, not a finding confirmed by a second official source in this pair of texts.

What is confirmed by both sources is narrower: Figment is supplying validator infrastructure for staking on BNY’s Digital Asset Custody platform, client assets are described as remaining in BNY’s custody framework, and Galaxy is already in that validator role as well.

A second validator does not complete the product record

Adding Figment tells institutions who else will run validators under BNY’s oversight. It does not, on the published record, tell them what they can stake, what it will cost, or when the service will be available to the eligible clients Figment names. Those omissions are material for a custody product. A second provider can diversify operational dependency, as BNY’s own article argues, and still leave the product incomplete as a matter of public fact.

The presence of Galaxy in BNY’s wording is the other fact that should not be smoothed away. A reader who saw only the Figment announcement could come away thinking a single specialist had been appointed. The bank’s article, dated the same day, describes a two-provider model. That is the version that should travel with the news.

Until BNY or Figment publish an asset list, a fee schedule or a go-live date, the story remains a validator-infrastructure appointment inside an existing custody service. The next useful record is one of those three details, or a BNY notice that states, in a product or legal document rather than an insight article, how responsibility is split when validator operations are tested.