Institutional digital asset staking now in UAE with Figment

Institutional digital asset staking now in UAE with Figment

Figment, a provider of digital asset staking infrastructure for over 700 institutional clients, including asset managers, exchanges, wallets, foundations, custodians, and large token holders, allowing them to earn rewards on their digital assets has entered the UAE in partnership with Tungsten, crypto custodian and exchange as part of its broader entrance into the Middle East.

Figment is the largest non-custodial staking provider of staked ETH ( Ethereum). Institutional staking services from Figment include seamless point-and-click staking, portfolio reward tracking, API integrations, audited infrastructure, and slashing protection.

Figment has appointed Christoph Richter as its first Head of Business Development in the Middle East while announcing its partnership with UAE regulated crypto custody provider Tungsten. Figment will leverage Tungsten’s well-established industry position and existing licensing within the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM), enabling them to offer enhanced, non-custodial staking options to clients via Figment’s infrastructure.

“Staking can be understood as earning the risk-free rate on proof-of-stake networks like ETH and SOL,” said Christoph Richter. “With inflation beating rewards and rising institutional digital asset allocations, staking is becoming a core strategy and the MENA region is ready.”

Christoph Richter

“The Middle East is uniquely positioned to benefit from institutional staking,” said Eva Lawrence, Figment’s Head of EMEA & Regional MD. “With Christoph’s deep background in traditional finance and digital assets, he’s perfectly placed to lead our growth in this high-potential market.”

Christoph will lead business development and strategic partnerships, reporting to Eva Lawrence, the Head of EMEA. He brings nearly two decades of TradFi derivatives experience, including senior roles at JP Morgan, Barclays, BNP Paribas, and UBS. In his most recent TradFi role, he led derivative solutions for Southern Europe and DACH at MUFG. Since entering the digital asset industry in 2017, he has advised top-tier firms and co-founded the proprietary BTC & ETH trading venture Vol Capital, building market neutral quantitative investment strategies. He has also worked on n major infrastructure Public Private Partnerships transactions across the Middle East, particularly in Saudi, building strong ties to the region’s major players and capital markets.

In June 2025, Figment, partnered with Crypto.com, crypto exchange with over 140 million users. This collaboration enabled Crypto.com users to access Figment’s institutional-grade staking services through the platform’s robust custody offering, delivering optimized rewards for mutual institutional clients. Through this integration, users can now stake their digital assets directly on the platform while maintaining complete control and security via Crypto.com’s secure custody solutions. Crypto.com Custody Trust Company, the regulated digital asset custody arm of Crypto.com, is supervised by the New Hampshire Banking Department and offers robust asset protection.

BNB Chain and KernelDAO commit to DeFi and restaking tech

BNB Chain and KernelDAO commit to DeFi and restaking tech

BNB Chain, the community-driven blockchain ecosystem that includes the world’s largest smart contract blockchain by daily transactions, launched its BNB Executive TVL Incentive Program #5, offering up to 5% of incremental staked BNB as delegation support to the top five protocols, with a total of up to 50,000 BNB.

Combined with the $40M Ecosystem Fund from KernelDAO, a top restaking protocol with $2 billion in assets, this represents a commitment to advancing decentralized finance and restaking technology on BNB Chain.


BNB Chain’s TVL Incentive Program #5 opens for registration on January 15, 2025, and will run from January 21, 2025, to February 21, 2025. The campaign is designed to incentivize projects integrating BNB staking, liquid staking, and restaking. The campaign commits delegation staking support equivalent to up to 5% of incremental Total Value Locked (TVL) growth in staked BNB achieved during the campaign. Each protocol can receive up to 20,000 BNB with a total pool of 50,000 BNB allocated. Rewards will be distributed to the top five performing protocols that drive innovation and adoption within the ecosystem.


“Through the TVL Incentive campaign, we aim to empower projects to achieve their full potential, while rewarding those who stake and help secure the expanding ecosystem. By locking in TVL and supporting their growth, we are not only advancing our mission of onboarding the next billion Web3 users but also positioning BNB Chain as a network of networks,” said Marwan Kawadri, Head of EMEA at BNB Chain.


Simultaneously, KernelDAO has unveiled its $40 million Ecosystem Fund to accelerate development across restaking and shared security to support projects building on its network within the BNB Chain ecosystem.

Supported by leading investors like Laser Digital, SCB Limited, Hypersphere Ventures, Cypher Capital, ArkStream, and Levitate Labs, this fund aims to empower developers to build middleware and applications on BNB Chain. Additionally, KernelDAO will allocate 5% of its token supply as ecosystem development grants for developers and partners building and working with the KernelDAO ecosystem. With the support of over 20 prominent middleware and applications including top AI players like Mira, and Zero-Knowledge proof networks like Electron, Kernel is set to expand its ecosystem by adding over 45 strategic partners through the Ecosystem Fund.


“The launch of the Ecosystem Fund is a significant step towards increasing our efforts to build the restaking and DeFi landscape on the BNB Chain. By empowering developers to build projects on Kernel, we aim to boost innovation across middleware, applications leveraging restaking,” said Amitej Gajjala, Chief Executive Officer and Co-Founder of KernelDAO.