Anchorage Digital has broadened its support for the Hyperliquid ecosystem by incorporating HYPE staking on HyperCORE, adding to its HYPE custody services available on HyperEVM.

Staking—where cryptocurrency is locked to secure a blockchain network in exchange for rewards—is offered via Anchorage Digital Bank and Anchorage Digital Singapore, which is licensed as a Major Payment Institution. The staking services are expected to be available through Porto, its self-custody wallet.

The bank has joined forces with Figment, a provider of staking infrastructure, to manage the validator infrastructure, as stated in a recent announcement released on Friday.

With the launch of custody and staking across both HyperEVM and HyperCORE, Anchorage Digital can facilitate a broader spectrum of activities within Hyperliquid, enhancing access to its decentralized finance (DeFi) ecosystem through Porto and enabling custody for more HyperEVM tokens, like Kinetiq.

Hyperliquid is a layer 1 blockchain that supports a decentralized exchange and operates with its own architecture, dividing functionalities between HyperEVM for Ethereum-style smart contracts and HyperCORE for native staking.

The recent initiative comes just two days after Anchorage Digital announced a partnership with Mezo, a platform offering Bitcoin-backed loans.

Founded in 2017 and based in San Francisco, Anchorage Digital Bank is the only federally chartered crypto bank in the United States, integrated with the broader Anchorage Digital platform.

Institutional DeFi Gains Momentum

Anchorage Digital’s latest effort underscores a growing trend of integrating DeFi infrastructure and yield-generating staking into institutional frameworks, as more custodians and infrastructure companies begin to provide controlled access to staking and other on-chain services.

In October, Crypto.com announced that it would allow users to lend wrapped cryptocurrency and earn stablecoin yield via Morpho, a decentralized lending protocol. Morpho intends to establish stablecoin markets on the Cronos blockchain, with initial vaults anticipated to be launched this year.

In September, Coinbase also added support for Morpho directly within its app, enabling users to lend USDC and earn up to 10.8% yield without needing to navigate external DeFi platforms or maintain separate wallets.

Additionally, in November, the infrastructure firm Threshold upgraded its tBTC bridge to facilitate institutions in minting tBTC on supported chains in a single Bitcoin transaction, simplifying the process for large Bitcoin holders to engage with DeFi protocols rather than letting assets remain idle.

A report from Binance Research revealed that DeFi lending protocols have seen growth exceeding 72% from January to early September, attributed to increased institutional demand for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).