Europe’s Fastest-Growing Regulated Crypto Bank Opens Institutional Staking for Polygon (POL)

• Swiss-regulated AMINA Bank AG announced it is the world’s first regulated financial institution to offer staking on Polygon.
• Polygon’s growth in tokenized assets, stablecoins, payment integrations, and real-world applications gives the staking service more utility.

Zug-based AMINA Bank AG, a FINMA-regulated crypto bank known for giving institutions access to digital assets like Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), and Solana (SOL), has made history by becoming the world’s first bank to introduce institutional staking for Polygon’s native token, POL.

Commenting on this initiative, Polygon co-founder Sandeep Nailwal, who took control of the Polygon Foundation in July as its first-ever CEO, stated,

According to AMINA’s announcement, institutional clients, which include asset managers, pension funds, family offices, and corporate treasuries, can now stake POL in a regulated framework. The reward for staking can reach up to 15% annually.

This is made up of a base yield (≈ 4-5%) derived from validator rewards, plus an incentive bonus from the Polygon Foundation for those who stake for a full year.

Notably, this new staking service is available only to qualified institutional participants who pass AMINA’s KYC and compliance checks, and like any proof-of-stake opportunity, it comes with its own set of risks. Yields can fluctuate depending on network performance, validators can face penalties if they misbehave, and there may be lockup or bonding periods to consider.

And that headline figure of “up to 15%” is just that, a maximum. To earn the full amount, institutions need to meet specific conditions, such as committing to a year of staking, and even then, returns can shift if the network environment changes.

The bank also noted that Polygon continues to strengthen its position in global payments. It currently dominates everyday transactions under $100 across all EVM chains, holding more than 30% of the market share, and leads in emerging markets with 90% of stablecoin activity.

Rio Upgrade and Institutional Momentum

To further boost its credibility, Polygon rolled out its Rio upgrade, which is now live on mainnet. As mentioned in our previous report, this upgrade fits neatly into Polygon’s vision of becoming a foundational layer for real-world asset (RWA) tokenization.

It brings faster transaction finality, better scalability, and a new block production model that makes the network more reliable and cost-efficient. With the Rio upgrade, Polygon can now process up to 5,000 transactions per second, and the introduction of lightweight nodes lowers costs for both validators and builders, making participation more accessible.

Polygon’s momentum is institutional, too. Earlier this month, AlloyX announced the launch of a tokenized money market fund on Polygon, with Standard Chartered serving as both the custody provider and registrar.

The fund is designed to blend compliance, transparency, and efficiency, marking an important turning point in how regulated financial products engage with blockchain infrastructure.

As of today, POL has a market capitalization of around $2.49 billion, with the network supporting nearly $3 billion in stablecoin market cap. USD Coin leads the pack, holding about 41% of that share. POL is currently priced at $0.2362, down slightly over the past day and week, while trading volume has jumped 22% to reach $166 million.