EP - 103

Staking Without Compromise: Powering the Institutional Future

with

Ariel Wengroff, Sebastien Badault & Max Marcisiak
Global Marketing/Comms, Head of Enterprise @ Ledger & Lead Partnerships Manager @ Luganodes

Nov 10, 2025

On this episode of The Ledger Podcast, Ariel Wengroff, Sebastien Badault from Ledger Enterprise, and Max Marcisiak from Luganodes discuss how their partnership is redefining institutional staking, providing essential security and governance features while ensuring clients maintain control of their digital assets.

“We know that just like there’s going to be more and more hacks there’s going to be more and more audits”. – Sebastien Badault

They explore the necessity of staking in the current financial climate, the importance of non-custodial solutions, and the stringent security measures required for new institutional market entrants.

Key Highlights:

Staking as a Financial Necessity, Not Just Yield

Staking is transitioning from being solely about yield generation to becoming a critical component of institutional strategy. For institutional players, staking is necessary because failing to do so means you’re losing out due to inflation. If institutions are going to stake, they require the best operationally, concerning regulation and auditability, to ensure client assets are not endangered.

A common thread between the consumer and enterprise side of Ledger is the commitment to being a platform and making solutions available to many partners and players.

Institutional Readiness and Raising the Bar

The current market cycle is definitely led by institutions. These new entrants, coming from traditional finance (TradFi), expect robust checks and balances, raising the overall bar for security in the space. Seb noted that they must prepare for these new institutions, who would deem a solution that was half baked and not good enough. The partnership between Ledger Enterprise and Luganodes is crucial because Ledger provides the security layer, and Luganodes provides validation and the capacity to assure treasury management folks that they are doing it right.

The Power of Non-Custodial Staking

A central focus of the partnership is maintaining a non-custodial model, which is essential for institutional peace of mind. Non-custodial staking allows clients to stake while still maintaining private keys.

“You give someone your vote but you always hold on to the ballot” – Sebastien Badault.

The non-custodial approach is beneficial because it eliminates counterparty risk, which was one of the main reasons crypto, starting with Bitcoin, was invented. This ensures that clients remain in control and don’t have to compromise. Clients can stop staking without asking Luganodes or the validator for permission, maintaining 100% control.

Mitigating Slashing Penalties and Enhancing Security

Max clarified that on-chain staking is the validation process for Proof-of-Stake networks, where validators (like Luganodes) produce blocks and ensure transactions are honest. If a validator fails to adhere to protocol rules (e.g., creating money out of thin air), they risk being slashed or penalized, causing clients to lose a portion of their staked investment.

Luganodes employs specific risk mitigation strategies for institutions:

- Backup Nodes: They always run a backup node in a different, independent region, allowing quick switching if a primary validator goes offline (due to power outage, etc.).

- Insurance: Luganodes is an “insured validator,” meaning that if slashing theoretically happens on a slashable chain like Ethereum, the client would be insured by Luganodes.

Furthermore, having the right governance and clear signing ensures clients are protected and do not have to sacrifice security.

Watch the full episode below:

Predictions for the Future of Staking

Sebastian Badault (Seb)

- More and more companies will start creating treasuries around Bitcoin and crypto.

- With legislation like the Genius Act, corporates will begin issuing their own stablecoins.

- Staking will become more of an absolute key feature in everything that you’re doing in treasury management, predicting “hockey stick” growth in the next 12 to 18 months.

Max Marcisiak

- Staking is the most proven and the most long-standing DeFi opportunity compared to others.

- Staking will continue to grow, especially since most blockchains utilize Proof-of-Stake consensus.

- Everyone is interested in earning additional yield in a healthy manner with mitigated risks.

Dispelling the Biggest Misconception

When asked what misconceptions he often repeats to clients, Sebastien noted that many institutional clients suffer from a lack of thought put into their security setup, mistakenly believing that what works on the consumer side will suffice institutionally.

Max emphasized the core principle of non-custodial staking:

“I think that staking is the most proven and the most long-standing um DeFi opportunity compared to others and it is also actually quite rare to hear the words insurance and crypto go together if you have the right governance and if you have clear signing you’re basically protected and so yes, you can do all these different things that you could do in the crypto space but you don’t have to sacrifice security”.