Figment and OpenTrade have unveiled an innovative financial product known as “OpenTrade Stablecoin Staking Yield,” aimed at providing a targeted yield of 15% by leveraging Solana’s staking returns. This initiative involves Crypto.com, which has been appointed to provide custody for the assets involved.
In a recent announcement, the two companies detailed the mechanics behind this new yield strategy. Institutions interested in the product can deposit and withdraw stablecoins while earning yield derived from Solana (SOL) staking rewards. OpenTrade manages an offsetting perpetual-futures hedge to enhance returns. The deposits and withdrawals occur through Figment’s platform, and the entire strategy is executed within a vault managed by OpenTrade. Notably, Figment highlighted that their strategy has historically generated returns exceeding the usual staking rate for Solana, which is typically between 6.5% and 7.5%.
Jeff Handler, the co-founder and chief commercial officer of OpenTrade, emphasized that this product offers companies access to a distinct yield opportunity that is not readily available through traditional real-world assets (RWA) or decentralized finance (DeFi) processes. With Figment being a prominent institutional staking provider managing $18 billion in assets, and OpenTrade specializing in on-chain and RWA-backed lending and stablecoin yields, the partnership aims to fill a critical gap in the financial services landscape.
The environment surrounding stablecoin issuers has been evolving, particularly following the passage of the US GENIUS Act in July. This legislation established a clear regulatory framework, promoting growth in the stablecoin market. However, it also explicitly prohibits stablecoin issuers from offering interest or yield to tokenholders, prompting many institutions to explore staking-based returns.
In line with this trend, Solana has attracted notable attention with the introduction of staking exchange-traded funds (ETFs). The first such ETF, launched by REX-Osprey in July, quickly amassed over $100 million in assets under management by July 22. Subsequently, Bitwise introduced its own Solana ETF on October 28, debuting with more than $220 million in assets, followed by Grayscale’s Solana Trust ETF (GSOL), which began trading the next day on the NYSE Arca platform.
These ETFs operate by staking the SOL held within them to contribute to network security, generating rewards that are then distributed among shareholders. Grayscale returns approximately 77% of these rewards, while Bitwise distributes about 72%, retaining the remainder to support the fund structure.
Despite the increasing opportunities provided by regulated access to Solana staking rewards, the price of SOL has faced some challenges in the market. As of now, the token is priced around $135, reflecting a decline of approximately 19% over the past two weeks, according to data from CoinGecko.
