21Shares Supercharges Crypto ETPs with BitGo Custody & Staking Power-Up

Forget your grandpa's index fund—crypto just got a major institutional upgrade.

21Shares, the Swiss ETP powerhouse, just plugged directly into BitGo's fortress-like custody and staking engine. This isn't just a partnership; it's a full-stack infrastructure play designed to make crypto investing as smooth as tapping your phone.

The Custody Conundrum, Solved

Institutional money has been circling crypto for years, held back by one nagging question: where do we park the keys? BitGo's answer—a regulated, insured, multi-signature vault—just became the default answer for a massive new pipeline of investment products. 21Shares isn't just using a service; they're baking bank-grade security into their entire product DNA.

Staking: The Silent Yield Engine

Here's the real kicker. This integration doesn't just safeguard assets—it puts them to work. By leveraging BitGo's staking infrastructure, 21Shares can now offer ETPs that automatically generate yield on proof-of-stake assets. Passive income meets passive investing. It turns a static holding into a productive asset, quietly compounding in the background while investors sleep.

It's a masterclass in removing friction. They've effectively outsourced the two hardest problems in institutional crypto—security and yield generation—to a specialist. This lets 21Shares focus on what they do best: packaging digital assets into sleek, exchange-traded wrappers that financial advisors actually understand.

The move signals a clear pivot from 'crypto products' to 'financial products with crypto inside.' It's a bid for legitimacy that bypasses years of skeptical scrutiny by simply adopting the gold-plated standards of traditional finance. (Take that, Wall Street dinosaurs still trying to short Bitcoin with your outdated spreadsheets.)

One cynical finance jab? This is how you make crypto boring enough for pension funds—by wrapping its explosive potential in the comforting, familiar blanket of custody agreements and yield reports. The revolution will be institutionalized, audited, and generating a steady 4% APY.

The bottom line: The race to bridge crypto and traditional finance just accelerated. 21Shares, with BitGo in its corner, isn't just building a better product—they're building the on-ramp for the next trillion dollars.

BitGo helps 21Shares manage its crypto ETPs by providing custody for assets and staking services

21Shares needs stronger systems behind the scenes as it grows its product lineup, so BitGo will help it store digital assets safely for its U.S. exchange-traded funds and its European exchange-traded products.

The company will also introduce more liquity and trading support so that 21Shares can access electronic markets and over-the-counter trading desks easily to handle large trades and reduce delays in moving large amounts of crypto.

21Shares can now use BitGo’s staking services to earn staking rewards while keeping its assets safe, as institutions today seek profit and strong assurance that their assets are secure.

BitGo will support 21Shares as its global product lineup continues to grow, while 21Shares said it chose BitGo because of its strong compliance record, high security standards, and careful governance approach.

21Shares expands its crypto investment platform as more people seek safe, regulated staking options.

More traditional investors are entering the crypto markets through regulated products, rather than directly through tokens. This is because, for a company like 21Shares, which already has over $5 billion in assets and runs dozens of ETPs on exchanges across the globe, the need for better infrastructure is imperative.

Working with BitGo is part of a wider trend in which institutions are paying closer attention to staking rewards, as it allows investors to profit by supporting proof-of-stake networks. Institutions now want staking options that operate within regulated frameworks, where assets remain secure, and custody standards remain strong.

For example, Coinbase partnered with Figment to expand its custody-based staking and enable institutional clients to stake assets like Solana and Avalanche directly from their custody accounts. The crypto exchange’s revenue and profit slid in the final quarter of last year, following a brutal Bitcoin selloff that is still hurting crypto markets.

The US’s biggest crypto exchange on Thursday posted a net income loss of $667 million for the final three months of the year, down from a $1.3 billion profit from the same period in 2024.

Another example is Anchorage Digital, which also added staking services through its regulated entities, allowing institutions to stake rewards. Ripple also integrated with tools that help banks and custodians offer crypto custody and staking support. These examples show just how much institutions want to stake access through trusted and regulated systems.

Liquid staking has also garnered considerable interest due to the ability to earn staking rewards while retaining an asset that remains tradable and usable. This allows users to still make trades and transfers, and even use them for borrowing and lending markets. More institutions are exploring these models, driving staking innovations deeper into the financial system.

The evolving relationship between BitGo and 21Shares is a prime example of how crypto-based investment products are becoming more regulated. Rather than just offering a SAFE haven to store your cryptoassets and/or provide exposure to them and receive a return from staking, the next step will be to offer staking rewards alongside safe-haven storage within a strong, institutional-grade setup.

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