‍TORONTO, Canada, March 25th, 2026/ PRNewswire / - Northstake has announced that Balance’s clients can now access Lido V3 stVaults through the Northstake Staking Vault Manager(SVM), as the first North American custodian to offer this integration.

This enables Balance’s institutional clients todeploy Ethereum (ETH) through Lido’s newest modular staking module, in a trueenterprise-grade fashion. Using the Northstake SVM, clients can directly stakeETH into operator-specific stVaults and mint stETH or wstETH against theirstaked assets, providing on-demand liquidity access alongside staking yield.Institutions managing significant ETH positions can now maintain liquidity,without exiting validators.

Canadian and U.S. accredited investors can performthe above workflow directly from qualified custody, through Balance TrustCompany, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Balance, and qualified U.S. and Canadiancustodian. Balance Trust Company serves asset managers, registered investmentadvisers, crypto asset trading platforms, and accredited investors across NorthAmerica. It is the second-ever registered digital asset custodian in Canada,and the only one with a proprietary technology platform developed entirelyin-house through more than seven years of continuous research and development.

“Qualified custodians are a gateway to regulatedcapital. This means asset managers and digital asset treasury companies, whocustody with Balance can now use stVaults to mint stETH or wstETH against theirstaked assets, without leaving their secure custody environment. That’s ameaningful unlock for institutions evaluating Ethereum staking solutions.” saidJesper Johansen, CEO of Northstake.

The announcement comes as institutional demand forliquid Ethereum staking infrastructure continues to grow. Lido V3’s stVaultarchitecture enables operator-specific, configurable staking vaults, butinstitutional adoption requires a full-stack layer combining enterprisetooling, compliance-grade custody, and regulatory alignment. Northstake’s SVMis designed to provide that enterprise layer, while Balance addresses thequalified custody for regulated institutions across North America.

"Qualified custodians are the gateway toregulated capital, and Balance Trust Company becoming the first in NorthAmerica to support stVaults demonstrates that this architecture is ready forinstitutional deployment. stVaults gives institutions something they couldn'tget before: the ability to stake on their own terms without sacrificingliquidity. That's a meaningful shift, and we expect it to accelerate,"said Kean Gilbert, Head of Institutional Relations at Lido EcosystemFoundation.

George Bordianu, co-founder and CEO of Balance,continues: “Our integration with Northstake reinforces Balance’s role as apremier financial services and infrastructure provider. We can now enable ourclients to put their ETH to work with minimal hassle, thanks to Northstake’sunique and novel solution”.

With Balance joining the Northstake SVM ecosystem,Northstake extends its footprint to both Canada and the United States. Theintegration marks a significant step in building a full institutionalinfrastructure layer for Lido V3 stVaults, one that connects node operators,qualified custodians, and end-users through a single enterprise platformdesigned to meet the standards of regulated financial institutions.

Jesper Johansen, CEO and Founder of Northstake, isavailable for interviews.

About Northstake

Northstake is aCopenhagen-based financial technology company providing regulatory-compliantstaking solutions for institutional investors. Supervised by the DanishFinancial Supervisory Authority (DFSA) under the Danish AML Act, Northstakeserves regulated financial institutions, digital asset managers, and custodianswith innovative staking infrastructure. The company enables institutions toparticipate in Ethereum staking through a secure, multi-operator frameworkbuilt on Lido V3 primitives. For more information, visit northstake.dk.

About Balance

Balance connects itsclients to top-tier providers such as Attestant, DARMA Capital, Maple Finance,and Northstake through its digital asset rails, enabling them to stake, lend,and liquidate billions of dollars’ worth of assets directly from the comfort ofBalance Trust Company, its qualified custodian. Full disclaimer atbalance.ca/disclaimer

Full PR: https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/balance-enables-its-custody-clients-to-access-to-lido-stvaults-via-northstake-302724849.html?tc=eml_cleartime