Written by Silvia Pavelli
The collaboration will allow institutional clients of Anchorage Digital to gain exposure to Ethereum staking and restaking yields through Puffer’s pufETH token, signaling growing institutional interest in more complex DeFi products.
In a move to bridge the gap between decentralized finance (DeFi) and institutional investment, Puffer Finance has announced a partnership with Anchorage Digital, a crypto platform for institutional investors. The collaboration, detailed in a recent announcement, will provide Anchorage Digital’s clients with access to pufETH, Puffer Finance’s liquid restaking token.
This partnership enables institutional investors to access yields from Ethereum staking and restaking activities while utilizing Anchorage Digital’s established custody and security infrastructure. Anchorage Digital provides a range of services for institutions, including trading, staking, custody, and governance, and the integration of pufETH expands its offerings in the realm of Ethereum-native yield generation.
The collaboration comes as institutional interest in the Ethereum ecosystem continues to mature beyond simple asset holding. Liquid restaking, a process that allows staked ETH to be used to secure other protocols, offers a way to generate additional yield, a feature that is increasingly attractive to institutional clients seeking more capital-efficient strategies.
In the announcement, Amir Forouzani, Co-Founder and CEO of Puffer Labs, commented on the growing demand. “Institutional demand for Ethereum-native yield is growing rapidly,” Forouzani stated. “By collaborating with Anchorage Digital, we’re making pufETH accessible through a trusted institutional platform while preserving the decentralized operator model that makes Puffer’s liquid restaking architecture resilient.”
Puffer Finance’s protocol is built on a decentralized model that utilizes a wide array of independent operators. According to the company, this approach is designed to reduce concentration risk and improve the reliability of validator performance. The protocol also features built-in slashing protection, a mechanism intended to safeguard against the financial penalties that can occur if a validator fails to perform its duties correctly.
Representing the institutional perspective, Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, highlighted the need for compliant and secure access to the onchain economy. “Enabling access to pufETH through Anchorage Digital allows our clients to engage with Ethereum staking and restaking opportunities without taking on additional operational or security complexity,” said McCauley.
The partnership reflects a broader trend of financial institutions seeking regulated and secure entry points into the evolving world of DeFi. By combining Puffer’s yield-generating token with Anchorage Digital’s institutional-grade platform, the two companies aim to provide a product that meets the operational and regulatory standards required by large-scale investors.
