Anchorage Unlocks Starknet Staking for Institutions
- Keyword Financial
- Sep 3
- 4 min read
Introduction
Anchorage Digital, a U.S.-chartered crypto bank, has expanded its offerings to include custody and staking support for Starknet’s STRK token, opening the door for institutional investors to earn staking rewards. The move builds on Anchorage’s existing STRK custody services and responds to growing demand for yield-generating crypto products. Currently, staked STRK offers an annual percentage rate (APR) of 7.28%, making it competitive with traditional yield options. Starknet itself is a layer-2 Ethereum scaling solution that uses zero-knowledge proofs to process transactions more efficiently, and it introduced staking this year as part of its decentralization strategy.
This launch comes at a time when yield-bearing crypto products are gaining traction, partly because traditional assets like U.S. Treasurys—currently yielding between 4.0% and 4.5%—may see lower returns if interest rates decline later this year. Institutions increasingly see staking as a viable way to capture returns, even as large banks such as JPMorgan and BNY Mellon place greater emphasis on blockchain tokenization. Ethereum staking, in particular, continues to surge, with over 860,000 ETH (valued at $3.7 billion) waiting in the entry queue as of September, signaling strong appetite for validator participation.
Institutional involvement in staking is becoming global. For instance, Switzerland’s Sygnum Bank became the first regulated bank to offer Ethereum staking in 2021, and Nomura-backed Komainu rolled out institutional custody for Lido’s staked ETH earlier this year. Other collaborations, such as the Liquid Collective’s launch of a liquid staking token for Solana (LsSOL), reflect the industry’s efforts to broaden institutional access in a compliant and standardized way. Anchorage’s STRK staking support is thus part of a broader trend: the shift of professional and regulated financial institutions into staking markets traditionally dominated by retail crypto users.
