The original custody agreement between VanEck Digital Assets and BitGo dates to August 5, 2026, and the amendment disclosed in this filing is dated September 25, 2026. The 8-K specifies that only Schedule A, covering the staking validator designation and fee, was modified; the remaining provisions of the broader custody agreement were left unchanged.
Naming a dedicated staking validator and disclosing the associated fee is a structural detail that matters for how a staking-enabled ETF actually generates yield for its shareholders: the validator fee is effectively a cost the fund pays for having its $BNB staked and put to work, and that fee reduces the net staking reward that flows through to investors. Filing the arrangement as a formal 8-K amendment, rather than describing it only in marketing materials, gives investors and analysts a documented, auditable record of exactly which entity is validating the fund’s holdings and what it costs.
The filing is a routine but concrete example of the operational infrastructure that sits underneath the growing wave of staking-enabled crypto ETFs now trading in the U.S. market. As more issuers launch funds that stake proof-of-stake assets like $BNB, Solana, and NEAR on behalf of shareholders, the custodians and validators named in agreements like this one are becoming a meaningful part of the due-diligence picture for investors trying to understand exactly how a fund’s staking yield is generated and who is responsible for the underlying validator infrastructure.
This post first appeared in VanEck $BNB ETF Amends Custody Agreement, Names Figment as Staking Validator
