Kraken Institutional partners with Upshift to offer on-chain yield in custody

Kraken Institutional has partnered with on-chain yield platform Upshift to let institutional clients earn yield on idle bitcoin, ether and stablecoins held in custody. The offering uses dedicated vaults built for each client, with Upshift allocating assets to DeFi protocols based on the client’s risk tolerance and liquidity needs while the assets remain within Kraken’s qualified custody framework. The structure is designed to address a longstanding trade-off between secure custody and active participation in on-chain strategies by combining Kraken’s custody and account infrastructure with Upshift’s vault architecture and strategy execution. Earlier details from Kraken said the program can support DeFi, CeFi, PayFi and real-world-asset strategies across more than 30 chains, with vault positions represented by receipt tokens returned to a client’s segregated custody account and assets not pooled or rehypothecated. Kraken has said its qualified custody stack includes SOC 2 Type 2 certification, a Wyoming SPDI license and $100 million in insurance coverage, with custody provided by Payward Financial or Payward Europe Solutions, alongside MiCA authorization under the Central Bank of Ireland and FCA registration in the UK. The launch reflects rising institutional demand for yield-bearing crypto exposure through structures designed for compliance, segregation and operational simplicity, though Kraken has cautioned that yield is variable and smart-contract risks remain.