Why ETP Issuers Are Running More Than One Staking Provider
In Brief:
- Virtune, the regulated Swedish issuer, has added Twinstake as a staking provider within its crypto ETP programme, alongside its existing providers.
- The move reflects a wider pattern: European issuers are increasingly running more than one staking provider to spread operational risk and broaden network coverage.
- Choosing a staking provider has become a product decision that touches compliance, custody, reporting, the rewards passed through to investors, and the level of hands-on support behind it.
- Twinstake's institutional footprint includes the staking infrastructure provider supporting the first North American Solana staking ETFs and ~40% of European staking ETPs.
Virtune has added Twinstake as a staking provider within its crypto ETP programme, available alongside the issuer's existing providers. A single addition like this is straightforward operationally. What it signals about the European market is the more useful read: issuers are now building staking into regulated products with the same redundancy they already apply to custody and trading.
Provider concentration as a risk
For years, staking inside a regulated wrapper was treated as a single integration handled once and left alone. That is changing. As staking rewards become a larger part of an ETP's return profile, and as the assets held in those products grow, issuers have begun to treat provider concentration as a risk worth managing directly. Running more than one validator partner gives an issuer continuity if a provider hits an operational issue, leverage in commercial terms, and coverage across networks that no single provider supports end to end.
The issuer's checklist
The assessment has moved well beyond headline reward rates. The questions issuers ask of a staking provider now map closely onto their own regulatory obligations:
- Regulatory posture: is the provider independently audited (SOC2) and conduct sanctions screening, including against OFAC sanctions lists, and can the compliance team verify those claims for itself?
- Custody model: does the provider take control of assets, or does it operate non-custodially so the issuer's chosen custodian retains them throughout?
- Operational track record: slashing history, uptime, and how the provider has performed through network upgrades and periods of stress.
- Reporting: can the provider supply the reward and performance data the issuer needs for its own disclosures and final terms?
- Network coverage: one integration that scales as assets are added to the programme, rather than a fresh build for each new network.
- Engagement model: how hands-on the provider is during integration and after it goes live, whether the issuer works with a named team, how quickly questions are answered, and how the product is supported through network upgrades and changes to final terms.
Where Twinstake sits
Measured against those criteria, much of Twinstake's record is already on the public file. It is the validator behind the first North American Solana staking ETFs (3iQ’s SOLQ and the REX-Osprey SSK). Twinstake operates non-custodially across 18+ networks on a single API, serves institutional clients, holds SOC2 certification and conducts sanctions screening, including against OFAC sanctions lists, and integrates with institutional custodians including Zodia and Komainu. In the European ETP market specifically, as of July 2026 Twinstake supports ~40% of staking-enabled products. Our model is built around direct support: issuers work with the team running their mandate, with integration and reporting handled to each product’s requirements.
Virtune's move is a recent case in point. Adding Twinstake as an additional provider, alongside its existing ones, brings a more staking options into the same programme.
The next dividing line
The structural trend is towards greater use of staking within products. As that trend continues, more issuers will face the provider question. And as more providers clear the same baseline of compliance and coverage, the harder question becomes how a provider handles the relationship once the integration is live. Increasingly, that engagement model is where issuers draw the distinction.
Issuers weighing a staking partner can reach Twinstake's institutional team here: sales@twinstake.io
Disclaimer: Twinstake does not provide staking services to retail customers. This briefing note is not intended as a promotion, offer, invitation or solicitation for the purchase or sale of any investment, nor is it intended to give rise to any other legal relations whatsoever and must not be relied upon for the purposes of any investment decision. It does not constitute financial, legal, or investment advice. If you do not have the relevant professional experience in matters relating to crypto asset investments, you should not consider this briefing note to be directed at you.
This briefing note and the information in it are not directed at, or intended to be made available to, retail customers. It is directed only at persons who are professional investors (for the purposes of the Alternative Investment Fund Managers Directive (2011/61/EU) (known as 'AIFMD'); professional clients or eligible counterparties for the purposes of the Markets in Financial Instruments Directive (Directive 2004/39/EC) (known as ‘MiFID’); if you are in the UK, to “Investment Professionals” or "High Net Worth Companies" as defined in s.19 and s.49 respectively of the Financial Promotions Order, or as otherwise defined under applicable local regulations and at whom this briefing note and the information in it may lawfully be directed in any relevant jurisdiction.
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