The history of Figment institutional Ethereum staking

From Seed to $1.4 Billion

Figment secured a Series A in 2020 and moved to Series B and C rounds in 2021. Investors in those rounds included Anchorage Digital and Liberty City Ventures. These rounds placed the company valuation between $1.29 billion and $1.4 billion. The company grew to manage over $15 billion in staked assets across 50 networks. By October 2025, Thoma Bravo led a $110 million Series C funding round. This brought the valuation to $1.4 billion. The company serves more than 700 institutional clients, including asset managers, exchanges, wallets, and foundations.

Integration and Expansion

The integration with Fireblocks allows institutions to perform staking through various methods, such as using the native Fireblocks UI, the Fireblocks browser extension, or the programmatic Figment and Fireblocks API integrations. Institutions can use the native Fireblocks UI to stake in minutes. They can also connect via the Fireblocks browser extension to use the Figment application. Programmatic integration using the Figment or Fireblocks API takes between 3 and 7 days. For specific needs, raw transaction signing provides custom control within 3 to 7 days. This non-custodial model means Figment never takes custody of client assets. Instead, the infrastructure allows clients to maintain control of their keys. Colton Campbell, Head of Sales Engineering at Figment, noted that these companies usually start with crypto custody first and then add staking as a natural next step six months later. This expansion into the Middle East involves the UAE-based provider Tungsten. This collaboration provides staking access via the Abu Dhabi Global Market. Christoph Richter leads business development in this region. You should realize that the technical lift for these integrations remains a significant barrier for smaller firms.

Staker Protection and the 2026 Landscape

In February 2025, BTCS and Figment announced a partnership for a Staker Protection Plan. This program aims to help traders with transaction inclusion and state preservation. WonderFi served as the first customer in the pilot program, which launched in March 2025. This pilot coincided with the Ethereum Pectra update. The program benefits stakers on the Bitbuy and Coinsquare platforms. It addresses complexities and heightened risks of high-value transactions in cross-chain and cross-venue operations.

Figment uses a multi-client infrastructure that supports both Lighthouse and Prysm clients. This approach reduces dependency on a single codebase. The company uses MEV-Boost integration with multiple OFAC-compliant relays to provide risk-adjusted rewards. The company also provides reward reporting in multiple formats.

The regulatory landscape changed on March 17, 2026, when U.S. regulators classified ETH as a digital commodity. This followed filings from VanEck and Fidelity for their own staking products. As of 2026, over 37 million ETH is staked, which is more than 30% of the total supply. In February 2026, the validator entry queue reached a peak of 71 days. On February 24, 2026, the Ethereum Foundation staked 70,000 ETH. Figment reported a 99.9% participation rate for its validators in the first quarter of 2026. The company recorded zero double-sign slashing events, while the network saw 33 events. Figment validators held 5.8% of all staked ETH. The average SRR for Figment validators was 2.92%, compared to the 2.91% network average. In the execution layer, validators proposing blocks received a median of 0.010827 ETH, which is 7% higher than the network median of 0.010017 ETH. This performance gap exists because execution layer rewards depend on user priority fees and MEV at the time of block proposals. Consensus layer rewards accounted for 93% of total validator rewards, while execution layer rewards made up 7%. Does the compression of yield in 2026 eventually force stakers toward more complex multi-client setups?