Jun 16 2025
Galaxy, a global leader in digital assets and data center infrastructure, and Liquid Collective, the open and interoperable staking network, announce a strategic collaboration to accelerate the institutional adoption and expansion of liquid staking.
As part of this collaboration, Galaxy will now provide OTC support for LsETH and accept it as collateral through Galaxy Global Markets, expanding access to capital-efficient staking strategies for institutional participants. It also includes an integrated offering for Galaxy Asset Management clients, providing direct access to LsETH and future staking products through Galaxy’s existing platform. The two will also collaborate on future ecosystem expansion, beginning with Solana.
In parallel, Galaxy has joined Liquid Collective’s active set as a Node Operator, alongside Coinbase, Figment, Staked, and Blockdaemon—bringing institutional-grade infrastructure and a global client network into the protocol.
“Liquid Collective was founded on the principle that collaborative innovation across leading market participants can solve market-wide challenges,” said Mara Schmiedt, CEO & Co-Founder at Alluvial, a team supporting Liquid Collective’s development. “With recent regulatory tailwinds and institutional demand on the horizon, this partnership with Galaxy meaningfully advances our mission to deliver secure, accessible and liquid staking to the mainstream market.”
Galaxy serves a diverse institutional client base with $7B in assets on platform and $2.3B staked across nine proof of stake networks. Liquid Collective, already integrated with over 25+ leading qualified custodians, exchanges, and asset managers, has experienced over +159% growth in ETH staked over the quarter. This collaboration builds on their previous work developing the Node Operator Risk Standard (NORS) Certification to advance institutional operator standards.
"This collaboration with Liquid Collective is a strategic move towards building the next generation of financial infrastructure,” said Zane Glauber, Head of Strategic Opportunities at Galaxy. “The future of staking hinges on robust, interoperable solutions that provide not just yield, but true liquidity and utility. By combining Galaxy's institutional-grade staking capabilities with Liquid Collective's industry-leading network, we are unlocking market opportunities and paving the way for wider adoption of digital assets."
A strategic shift amid staking’s regulatory breakthrough
This collaboration comes at a pivotal moment for the staking industry, as regulatory momentum builds and institutions seek compliant ways to participate in proof of stake networks.
On May 29, the SEC’s Division of Corporation Finance issued guidance clarifying that common protocol staking activities are not considered securities offerings. The move reduces uncertainty for institutional participants and signals potential approval for staking in U.S. spot Ethereum ETFs—six of which have already filed to stake a portion of their assets. A decision could come as early as June.
Meanwhile, liquid staking tokens (LSTs) have become a dominant model for participating in PoS networks, with over $37B in staked ETH, representing nearly 40% of all ETH staked. For institutional players, LSTs offer critical advantages—especially capital efficiency and redemption flexibility—making them well suited for asset managers, traders, and custodians.
Liquid Collective’s LsETH is the only LST on the market purpose-built to meet institutional needs through a distributed, interoperable, and compliance-focused approach. By leveraging a collaborative and interoperable approach across trusted industry players—akin to the collective models of the Visa network, Circle’s USDC, or the consortium-backed stablecoin being explored by J.P Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, and others—Liquid Collective is able to offer a resilient, secure, neutral, and innovative staking solution with built-in liquidity across leading participants.
Galaxy now joins the ranks of the more than 25 industry leaders supporting Liquid Collective’s mission, including Coinbase, Kraken, BitGo, Blockdaemon, and Anchorage Digital—the first federally chartered U.S. bank to support liquid staking. As market conditions evolve, this collaboration aims to help define the next standard in institutional-grade staking—starting with Ethereum and expanding into new ecosystems like Solana.
