Kraken Institutional, Upshift launch onchain yield vaults

Kraken Institutional has partnered with Upshift to give eligible institutional clients onchain vaults that earn yield on idle bitcoin, ether, stablecoins and other crypto assets held in Kraken’s qualified custody. The firms announced the arrangement as part of Kraken Institutional’s suite of services for institutional investors.

Under the agreement, Upshift will build separate smart-contract vaults for each client based on investment strategy, risk limits, liquidity needs and asset mix. A vetted group of professional vault curators will manage allocations across asset types and risk profiles. Funds moved into these non-custodial vaults will be deployed to selected onchain contracts and a receipt token representing the position will be returned to the client’s segregated Kraken custody account. Kraken and Upshift say institutional controls and accounting will be enforced at the vault, protocol, chain and token levels.

Kraken Institutional says the product allows clients to generate yield without opening new wallets or adding external counterparties. Custodial controls remain with Kraken while Upshift supplies the vault infrastructure and execution across blockchains.

The announcement places Kraken and Upshift in a broader market where custodians and infrastructure firms are testing onchain deployments for institutional funds. Some custodians have begun pilot programs that move secured, offchain assets into onchain contracts. Established vault providers use pooled structures that combine multiple users’ funds; Kraken and Upshift are offering client-specific smart contracts through a white-label model that keeps each client’s assets and governance separate.

Regulatory issues remain for products that pool investor funds in the United States, where legal tests could determine whether certain vault structures qualify as securities offerings. Kraken and Upshift say client-specific vaults are designed to isolate each institution’s assets and governance parameters to address security and compliance concerns.

Upshift is a B2B infrastructure provider that can deploy vaults across multiple chains and is active on Stellar and Solana. The company raised a $10 million Series A led by Dragonfly in March 2025. Kraken Institutional described the partnership as an option for clients seeking yield strategies inside its qualified custody framework while retaining institutional reporting and controls.

Gregory Barasia, head of asset management at Kraken Institutional, commented: “Institutions increasingly want a single platform to safeguard their assets and make them productive, not a separate counterparty for every function.” Aya Kantorovich, Upshift’s CEO, added: “Kraken pairs qualified custody with a full set of prime services, while Upshift provides the vault infrastructure to put assets to work. Together, clients can generate yield without spinning up new wallets, counterparties or protocols, while maintaining rigorous risk management built in.”