Anchorage Digital has integrated Lido into its institutional platform, allowing clients to access wrapped staked Ether without leaving the company’s custody environment.

The integration connects Anchorage Digital clients directly to the Lido application, where they can mint and burn wstETH. The token represents staked ETH while remaining liquid and transferable, with staking rewards reflected through its exchange rate relative to stETH.

“Liquid staking has become one of the most important building blocks for institutional participation in Ethereum,” Anchorage Digital cofounder and CEO Nathan McCauley said.

“By integrating with Lido, we’re giving institutions access to wstETH without the operational or security tradeoffs that have historically kept large allocators on the sidelines,” he added.

The offering is designed for institutions that want exposure to Ethereum staking rewards while maintaining existing custody, governance, reporting, and settlement processes.

Kean Gilbert, head of institutional relations at the Lido Ecosystem Foundation, told Crypto Briefing that interest in institutional staking infrastructure has increased over the past year as regulation has become clearer and custody services have matured.

“We are seeing strong interest from a range of institutional clients including asset managers, liquid funds, and ETH treasury holders,” Gilbert said.

“For institutional clients, custody based access is the most practical way to participate in the onchain economy right now,” he added. “It removes the complexity and compliance concerns that have historically kept large allocators on the sidelines.”

Anchorage Digital is home to the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States. The company said the integration allows clients to keep staking, custody, and governance within a single regulated environment rather than moving assets between multiple platforms.

Gilbert said Lido has spent more than $4 million on smart contract audits and has received A plus ratings from independent security firms, including Credora. He added that the protocol has operated since 2020 without a smart contract exploit and distributes stake across more than 900 node operators.

“No single operator controls more than 1% of the network, so there’s no single point of failure,” Gilbert said.

The initial integration is focused on minting and burning wstETH within Anchorage Digital. Institutions can convert ETH into wstETH and back through the platform, while the token remains transferable and may be used as collateral or moved into other strategies.

Unlike traditional staking positions that may require investors to wait before withdrawing assets, wstETH can be transferred without first unwinding the underlying staking position.

Gilbert said institutional adoption depends on whether access fits existing institutional operations. He added that Anchorage Digital’s integration brings wstETH to a major US institutional platform and reinforces the role of stETH and the Lido protocol in institutional Ethereum staking.