JPMorgan Product Head Joins GSR Trading MD to Build Institutional Staking Markets

[PRESS RELEASE – London, United Kingdom, September 9th, 2025, Chainwire]

Gyld Finance today announced the close of a $1.5 million pre-seed funding round led by Lightshift.

Founders & Vision

Founded by Abbas Ali (former Product Head at J.P. Morgan Kinexys) and Ruchir Gupta (former Head of Treasury & Options Trading at GSR), Gyld Finance is developing a regulated financial markets infrastructure to turn staking rewards into a tradable, institutional asset class.

With over $500 billion staked across major blockchains, staking rewards have become a key engine of returns in digital assets. An improving regulatory landscape has allowed a growing share of these assets to be held by institutional vehicles such as asset managers, ETPs, and digital asset treasuries – ultimately leading them to compete on performance, much like traditional funds.

“It’s only a matter of time before asset managers are benchmarked against indices like CESR, the Composite Ethereum Staking Rate, and we intend to provide the market infrastructure that enables this.” – Ali and Gupta, Co-Founders of Gyld Finance.

Product Overview

Gyld is building liquid term staking infrastructure: regulated instruments with a marketplace that bring fixed-income tools to staking.

• Active portfolio management – managing exposure across the validator curve.
• Capital efficiency – cutting liquidity buffers while keeping digital asset exposure.
• Risk hedging – managing staking reward volatility from network activity and liquidity risk from entry/exit queues.
• Institutional grade – regulated term instruments with clear legal foundations

Strategic Partnerships

Gyld Finance has signed agreements with Figment and Blockdaemon to ensure validator operations and risk management, while partnerships with Zodia Custody and Copper will provide secure infrastructure for institutional asset custody.

“As a leading provider of staking for institutions globally, at Figment we’ve seen first-hand the challenges around liquidity and risk management. Gyld is addressing this gap with the kind of compliant, scalable solution institutions have been waiting for, and we’re excited to support their mission.” — Eva Lawrence, Head of EMEA at Figment.

Gyld has commenced a pilot with Figment as its first staking provider and now onboarding select early adopters — including asset managers, trading firms, and leading digital asset treasuries.

Institutions wishing to participate are invited to contact Gyld at partners@gyld.fi

About Gyld Finance

Gyld Finance is building institutional markets for staked digital assets, turning passive staking into actively managed, fixed income–style products. Backed by Lightshift and led by experienced founders from JP Morgan, R3, Nomura, and GSR, Gyld provides compliant, liquid, and scalable infrastructure for asset managers and digital asset treasuries.

For more information, users can follow @GyldFinance on X or contact press@gyld.fi

About Lightshift

Lightshift is a venture firm investing in early-stage companies focused on digital infrastructure and programmable assets. The firm partners with founders to provide capital, technical expertise, and strategic insights for market-defining innovation.

For more information, users can visit www.lightshift.xyz