BitGo broadens custody and staking services for 21Shares’ ETPs across US and Europe

BitGo and 21Shares announced an expansion of their collaboration that will see BitGo supply custody, trading execution and staking infrastructure for 21Shares’ U.S. exchange-traded funds and its international ETP suite. The work will be routed through BitGo’s regulated arms, leveraging a federally chartered trust bank in the United States and European operations aligned with Germany’s regulatory framework. For 21Shares, which operates a broad set of crypto ETPs and sits under the FalconX group, the agreement stitches institutional custody and yield services directly into the product lifecycle. The transaction reflects a wider industry pattern: large custodians are increasingly embedding staking capabilities to meet investor demand for returns that come from proof-of-stake networks. That trend has prompted several custodians and infrastructure providers to form partnerships, bringing staking into regulated product wrappers while preserving operational controls. From a competitive perspective, BitGo’s arrangement raises the bar for other custody providers that must now offer not only safekeeping but also liquidity access and validator services to remain relevant to fund issuers. Regulators are an implicit part of this calculus; using chartered and licensed entities helps manage compliance expectations in multiple jurisdictions but does not eliminate legal uncertainty around staking and tokenized claims. For asset managers, integrating staking via an established custodian reduces technical friction: funds can present yield opportunities to investors without running validator nodes or complex key-management systems themselves. Financially, the deal creates potential revenue streams across custody fees, trading services and a share of staking economics, though the scale will depend on fund inflows and the performance of staked networks. The arrangement also touches on market structure: access to both electronic venues and over-the-counter liquidity suggests an intent to support sizeable flows into and out of ETP positions. While this partnership fortifies product offerings today, it also exposes both firms to future policy shifts around staking, liquid-staking tokens and how rewards are classified by securities regulators. In short, the pact is a practical step toward mainstreaming staking inside regulated investment vehicles, but its long-term commercial payoff will hinge on capital adoption, network yields and the evolving regulatory landscape.