Figment is positioned as an institutional staking infrastructure provider, with the main value proposition centered on operational discipline rather than “headline APY.” For decision makers, Figment should be evaluated the way infrastructure vendors are evaluated in other financial contexts: by controls, incident readiness, reporting quality, and how well real-world validator risks are managed.
In 2026, staking buyers increasingly care about mechanisms: how an operator prevents slashable behavior, how it behaves during client upgrades, what it does when MEV conditions change, and whether controls are independently validated.
A credible institutional staking provider needs to deliver more than validator uptime. Figment’s institutional offering is typically framed as an end-to-end staking solution: point-and-click staking, portfolio and reward tracking, API integration paths, audited infrastructure, and slashing protection, described in its announcement around institutional staking standards and the broader product scope.
Those features matter because institutional staking is usually not “set and forget.” It is integrated into finance, risk, and operations. The more friction removed from reporting and monitoring, the faster staking can move from pilot to scaled allocation.
On February 4, 2026, a press release described Figment as the first entity in North America and Europe to complete Full NORS certification for Ethereum node operator risk management. The same release explains that NORS is built around Ethereum node operator risk and evaluates areas that map directly to loss events, such as slashing prevention, validator diversity, key management practices, and operational resilience.
For buyers, NORS should not be treated as a guarantee of “no incidents.” It is better understood as structured evidence that a provider can demonstrate operational controls in the specific areas that commonly cause losses in staking: poor key boundaries, correlated infrastructure failures, and unsafe redundancy.
The same February 4, 2026 release ties NORS into a broader assurance program, listing SOC 1 Type I (rewards reporting), SOC 2 Type II, ISO 27001, and OFAC-compliant MEV relays as part of the controls stack.
This matters in 2026 because institutional staking involves multiple risk categories at once:
Independent attestations help reduce procurement friction, especially for teams that need to present a defensible third-party risk story to internal committees.
Wallet and custody integrations can function as distribution, but they also create pressure on operational quality because end users experience validator outcomes directly.
Ledger’s announcement about integrating Figment for ETH staking in Ledger Live frames Figment as an infrastructure provider with protocol and governance expertise and a staking path designed to reduce the operational burden on users.
MetaMask’s coverage of Solana staking with Figment similarly frames the integration around enterprise-grade infrastructure and certifications, emphasizing a “staking without extra dashboards” experience for end users.
These integrations can be a positive diligence signal because consumer-facing rails tend to surface reliability issues quickly. However, they also add reputational pressure and can increase correlated exposure if a single operator is routed a large share of stake through popular interfaces.
“Slashing protection” is not one feature. It is a collection of mechanisms.
A strong operator should demonstrate:
The NORS framing described in the February 4, 2026 release is relevant here because it maps slashing prevention and key management practices to evidence-based controls. That is closer to how institutions evaluate operational risk, compared to self-attested best-practice checklists.
MEV has become a meaningful part of ETH staking outcomes, but it also introduces operational and compliance complexity. Providers that route MEV flows must balance reliability, latency, and policy constraints, and the wrong MEV approach can create incident risk or compliance friction.
In 2026, it is reasonable for institutions to treat MEV design as part of risk management rather than a pure yield optimization layer. The February 4, 2026 release describes OFAC-compliant MEV relays as part of Figment’s assurance program, which is a useful diligence hook for buyers that have policy requirements around sanctions screening.
Institutional staking is usually priced as a commission on rewards, but total cost can shift based on:
The most important diligence item is not the headline fee. It is the contract definition of responsibility during a slashable event and the operational boundaries around key custody.
Pros
Cons and watch-outs
Figment is generally a strong fit for:
It can be a weaker fit for:
A 2026 procurement review should request evidence that connects controls to failure-mode prevention:
Figment’s 2026 profile reads as an institutional staking provider optimized for compliance and operational discipline, with public positioning tied to independently validated assurance, including Full NORS certification described on February 4, 2026. The strongest fit is for institutions and platforms that care about risk controls, reporting depth, and defensible procurement documentation, and that are willing to evaluate staking outcomes as a risk-managed infrastructure function rather than a pure yield product.
The post Figment Review 2026: Institutional Staking, NORS Certification, SOC 2, Pros And Cons appeared first on Crypto Adventure.
Also read: Tous les moyens sont bons : le plan brutal de Volkswagen pour réduire ses coûts
