Institutional crypto treasuries are entering a new phase. In the first wave, treasurers allocated to Bitcoin and Ethereum, focusing on long-term exposure and basic staking yields. But as on-chain infrastructure matures and liquid staking protocols like Lido and EigenLayer gain traction, a new strategy is emerging: yield stacking. By combining liquid staking tokens (LSTs), restaking mechanisms, and DeFi services, treasuries can now layer multiple sources of yield on top of the same principal, without giving up custody, transparency, or compliance controls. Treasuries that can generate 3–5% from vanilla savings and staking, can now see 6–10% using enterprise-grade tools and increasingly permissioned crypto vaults. This is Treasury 3.0: dynamic, composable, and built for capital efficiency.
The blink-and-you- will-miss- it era of single-layer staking, locking ETH or SOL for basic yield, is already giving way to yield stacking strategies that enhance capital efficiency without compromising security. Traditional staking is a great foundation, delivering around 3–5% APY on assets like Ethereum and Solana. Adding liquid staking, using tokens such as stETH or mSOL, which grant liquidity and composability for use across DeFi protocols, add another 3+%. For example, Lido’s stETH, for instance, currently yields 2.7-3.3% APY on secured ETH while enabling seamless DeFi integration across 90+ platforms. Next comes restaking, via platforms like EigenLayer, which allows existing staked (or liquid-staked) ETH to secure additional protocols, adding an extra ~.50% yield while leveraging Ethereum’s security layer. Each layer compounds yield while keeping treasuries in control via custodied wrappers, making this tactical approach highly compelling for sophisticated institutional finance teams.
Imagine a treasury that layers multiple yield strategies on the same ETH base—for example:
Stacking these rewards represents a 2x+ improvement over traditional savings or T-bill yields (~3% APY), without relinquishing principal or legacy custody frameworks. Whether a treasury opts for a conservative single-stack or a progressive full-stack deployment, the efficiency gain is clear, and easily trackable with the right tooling.
What once required bespoke tooling and manual tracking is now becoming enterprise-ready. Institutional-grade infrastructure is rapidly evolving to support yield-stacking strategies through familiar custody, validator, and reporting partners. Custodians like Coinbase Custody, Anchorage Digital, and BitGo now support liquid staking tokens (LSTs) and restaking flows, enabling treasuries to layer yield without compromising asset security. On the validator side, providers such as Chorus One, Kiln, Figment, and Renzo offer restaking and AVS onboarding services with built-in compliance and risk frameworks. And tools like Chorus One’s Rewards Reporting complete the stack by offering audit-ready reporting, wallet-level attribution, and easily exportable formats to satisfy both finance and ops teams. The combination of performance, visibility, and enterprise integration is what transforms this from a crypto-native idea into a finance-grade treasury solution.
While the opportunity is clear, executing a Treasury 3.0 strategy requires thoughtful navigation of regulatory, technical, and organizational complexity. Tax guidance remains underdeveloped, especially around restaking and liquid staking tokens (LSTs). For example, the IRS has clarified that staking rewards are taxed as ordinary income upon receipt (Rev. Rul. 2023‑14), but has yet to issue formal treatment of restaking flows or derivative tokens like stETH and LRTs. Meanwhile, Europe’s DAC8 and proposed U.S. legislation like the CLARITY Act could introduce new disclosure and compliance obligations for multi-layer yield strategies. On the operational front, risks include smart contract vulnerabilities in vaults or restaking modules, as well as composability fragility, where issues in one protocol layer (e.g., an LST depeg) could cascade through a treasury stack. To handle these requirements, institutions must update investment policies, establish clear escalation protocols, and ensure cross-functional coordination between finance, legal, and technical teams. But these are small obligations in comparison to the power of a Treasury 3.0 yield stacking strategy.
The next evolution of treasury management isn’t a future concept, it’s already unfolding across the on-chain economy. Treasury 3.0 strategies harness staking, restaking, and DeFi layers to unlock meaningful, compoundable returns which significantly outperform traditional finance tools while preserving custody, compliance, and control. With infrastructure and reporting tools maturing, these strategies are now auditable and enterprise-ready. For forward-looking finance teams, the question is no longer if to adopt these strategies, but how to operationalize them responsibly. Institutions that act now will not only drive stronger yield, they'll define the governance, compliance, and capital efficiency standards of the new digital economy.
