Kraken Institutional has partnered with Upshift to launch custom, permissioned vaults enabling eligible clients to deploy idle treasury assets into curated onchain strategies directly from qualified custody. Receipt tokens are held segregated in client custody accounts. Institutional controls, accounting, and risk management are maintained at the vault, protocol, chain and token levels.
Kraken Institutional has partnered with Upshift, a multi-chain vault infrastructure provider, to let institutional clients access onchain yield directly from qualified custody. The integration removes the operational overhead of sourcing yield across exchange, OTC and onchain markets, addressing the long-standing trade-off between secure custody and productive capital deployment. Custom vaults are built around each client's specific strategy, asset mix, liquidity needs and risk parameters. When clients deploy idle stablecoins, ETH or BTC into selected vault contracts, they receive receipt tokens held segregated in their Kraken custody account at redeemable underlying value, ensuring clear visibility and no rehypothecation. Institutional controls and accounting are maintained throughout the stack with permissions, approvals and reporting carrying over from Kraken's existing governance. Upshift provides vault infrastructure across 30+ chains with curated professional vault curators spanning DeFi, CeFi, PayFi and real-world-asset strategies. The platform has processed over $550 million in deposits at peak, undergone 10 smart contract audits by 6 independent firms, and raised a $10 million Series A led by Dragonfly in March 2025.