Blockdaemon: blockchain infrastructure for institutions

A bank, a custodian or an exchange that wants to hold or stake crypto-assets needs computers connected to each blockchain: nodes that read and send transactions, and validator nodes that confirm blocks on proof-of-stake networks. Blockdaemon runs this infrastructure for its clients, a model called node as a service. The company reports more than 250,000 nodes launched, over 400 institutional customers, more than 10 billion US dollars staked on its validators and more than 110 billion US dollars in digital assets secured by its infrastructure.

Its products fall into four groups: nodes, staking (including liquid staking and staking APIs), wallets and APIs. The wallets are the Institutional Vault, an MPC wallet for firms that hold client assets, and the Builder Vault for firms that build their own wallet product. The APIs cover RPC access, indexed blockchain data, event streams and reporting. Blockdaemon calls itself the only ISO 27001-certified independent staking provider and has held a SOC 2 Type II report since June 2025.

On a proof-of-stake blockchain such as Ethereum, validators lock up the network's own coin and confirm transactions in return for rewards. A validator that goes offline earns less, and one that signs conflicting blocks can be slashed, which means part of its stake is destroyed. Running a full Ethereum validator needs 32 ether and a setup that stays online around the clock. Institutional staking providers take over this work for asset managers, custodians and exchanges, which keep the client relationship and pass the rewards on.

Liquid staking is a second route. Protocols such as Lido pool smaller deposits, run the validators and issue a token, such as stETH, that stands for the staked position and can be traded or used in DeFi. Blockdaemon offers liquid staking to institutions next to direct staking on its own validators.

Crypto staking and the answer What is staking? explain the mechanics, and Yield farming vs staking shows where staking ends and DeFi begins.

The EU Markets in Crypto-Assets Regulation (MiCA) has no article on staking itself. The rules come from the services around it. A firm that holds the staked coins for its clients provides custody and needs a MiCA license for it, which in Germany BaFin grants. The Munich custodian Tangany, for example, holds a MiCAR license that names custody, staking and transfers. A bank that offers staking through a provider such as Blockdaemon therefore checks two things: its own license for custody and the operational risk of the validators, which under the EU's DORA rules is a question of ICT third-party risk. MiCAR, Regulation (EU) 2023/1114 and What is DORA regulation? go into the details.

Blockdaemon was founded in October 2017 in San Francisco as Blockdaemon Inc. by its founder Konstantin Richter, who is still its CEO. It has offices in Europe in Galway (Ireland), London and Newcastle.

An MPC wallet splits the private key of a crypto wallet into several parts, held on different machines or by different people. MPC stands for multi-party computation: the parts work together to sign a transaction, and the full key never exists in one place. Multisig reaches a similar goal on the blockchain itself with several separate keys, while MPC does it off-chain and works on blockchains without multisig support. MPC wallet providers for institutions include Blockdaemon with its Institutional Vault.

Node as a service means that a provider runs blockchain nodes for a client and gives it access through an API. Blockchain node providers such as Blockdaemon save a bank or fintech from operating its own servers for every network it supports.

Staking under MiCA is regulated only through the services around it, mainly custody of the staked assets. The regulation itself contains no staking provision. Tax treatment and national rules come on top and differ by country.