VanEck has amended its spot BNB exchange-traded fund (ETF), ticker VBNB, to add staking to the fund's investment objective and has appointed blockchain infrastructure firm Figment as the validator for its staking activities. The changes were formalized through an amendment to the fund's custody agreement filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) on September 25, 2026.

What Changed in the Custody Agreement

On September 25, 2026, VanEck Digital Assets, acting on behalf of the VanEck BNB ETF, and custodian BitGo Bank & Trust amended their existing Custodial Services Agreement, according to the SEC filing. The amendment restated Schedule A of the agreement to formally designate Figment as the validator for the Trust's BNB staking activities.

A validator is a participant that helps confirm and secure transactions on a blockchain network. BNB Chain relies on a consensus mechanism known as Proof-of-Staked Authority (PoSA), under which validators are selected based on the amount of BNB staked behind them. Figment, which provides institutional staking infrastructure across more than 40 blockchain protocols, will fill that role for VBNB. Because a spot ETF holds the underlying asset directly — in this case, actual BNB — custody and validation arrangements sit at the core of how the product functions, which is why they appear in SEC filings at this level of detail.

The amendment specifies a 4% validator fee applied to the staking rewards generated, not to the principal BNB held by the Trust. All other terms of the custody agreement remain unchanged.

Staking in the Fund's Investment Objective

VBNB's prospectus, dated October 1, 2026, describes the fund's investment objective as reflecting BNB's price while earning rewards from staking a portion of the Trust's BNB holdings. In plain terms, staking means putting cryptocurrency to work on a network in exchange for a share of the rewards that network generates — similar in concept to earning interest on a savings deposit.

The staking component is conditional. VanEck, as Sponsor, will stake BNB only when it determines that doing so would not create undue legal or regulatory risk, including risk to the Trust's tax status as a grantor trust. Grantor trust status is a tax classification under which the trust's assets and income are generally treated as directly attributable to its shareholders, which is why operational changes such as staking can carry tax consequences for the structure. Staking is not guaranteed income; it is an objective the fund pursues when conditions allow.

BNB made available for staking through BitGo is initially expected to be delegated to the Figment-operated validator. The operational chain runs as follows: Vanck directs the staking, BitGo holds and routes the assets, and Figment validates on the BNB Chain network. VanEck retains the right to limit or stop staking for legal, regulatory, tax, liquidity, network, or market reasons.

The filing is part of a broader push by asset managers to bring spot BNB ETF products before U.S. regulators. VanEck and Grayscale have both updated their SEC filings for BNB ETFs in recent months as the regulatory environment for digital asset products has shifted. The specificity of VanEck's amendment — a named validator, a stated fee, and a defined division of labor among sponsor, custodian, and validator — shows how concretely asset managers are now spelling out the operational details of proposed spot-BNB funds in their SEC filings.

Market Context

BNB was trading at $781.99 at the time of this report, up 1.73% over the preceding 24 hours, with a market capitalization of approximately $104 billion, according to CoinGecko. The broader crypto market Fear & Greed Index stood at 72, a reading in "Greed" territory.

The SEC filing makes no forecast about BNB's price or ETF flows. The amendment is an operational update, not a market signal. Whether VBNB attracts investor demand will depend on factors beyond the custody structure, including the fund's SEC approval status and broader market conditions. The filings describe a registered and listed spot-BNB trust with conditional staking, not an unconditional yield product.

Regulatory decisions around crypto continue to carry real-world financial consequences across multiple jurisdictions, not only in U.S. ETF markets, as the intersection of digital assets and institutional products deepens.

The Practical Takeaway

VBNB is a fund that holds BNB and may earn staking rewards on top of tracking BNB's price. Figment will run the validator node that generates those rewards. The 4% fee comes out of staking rewards, not out of the BNB held through the fund. Whether the fund actually stakes at any given time depends on VanEck's ongoing assessment of legal and regulatory risk. The indicators worth following from here are concrete: SEC action on the fund's approval status, and any future disclosure showing whether VanEck's conditions for staking have been met.

Disclaimer: This article is for informational purposes only and does not constitute financial or investment advice. Cryptocurrency and digital asset markets carry significant risk. Always do your own research before making decisions.

Source: CoinLineup