Kraken Adds Onchain Yield Access Through Upshift Deal

Kraken Institutional has partnered with Upshift to offer eligible institutional clients onchain yield access on idle bitcoin, ETH, stablecoins, and other crypto assets held in Kraken's qualified custody. Rather than deploying assets into generic pooled DeFi products, the partnership uses dedicated, client-specific vaults tailored to individual investment strategies, risk limits, and liquidity requirements. Assets are deployed into selected smart contracts, with receipt tokens returned to clients' segregated Kraken custody accounts.

Upshift, which raised $10 million in Series A funding led by Dragonfly in March 2025, serves as vault infrastructure provider. The white-label model allows large institutional clients to generate yield without moving assets across multiple wallets or counterparties, while maintaining segregated custody and tailored risk management.