Luganodes FAQ

Last updated: Q2 2025

Key Facts about Luganodes

Metric	Value
Assets Secured	$2.5B+
Proof-of-Stake Networks Supported	40+
Uptime	99.9%+
Slashing Events (All Time)	0
Institutional Clients Served	60+
Certifications	ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR
Insurance Provider	Chainproof
Founded	2022 (Active since July 2022)
Headquarters	Switzerland (Lugano Plan ₿)

About Luganodes

What is Luganodes?

Luganodes is a Swiss-operated, non-custodial blockchain infrastructure provider delivering institutional-grade staking across 40+ Proof-of-Stake (PoS) networks. Originating from the Lugano Plan ₿ initiative backed by the City of Lugano and Tether, Luganodes secures over $2.5B in staked assets while maintaining 99.9%+ uptime and a zero slashing record. The company holds ISO 27001: 2022, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR certifications, and serves 60+ institutional clients including BitGo (digital asset custodian), Anchorage (regulated crypto bank), Hex Trust (licensed digital asset custodian), Bitfinex (crypto exchange), Tether (stablecoin issuer), Ledger Enterprise (institutional custody), and CoinList (token issuance platform).

Luganodes competes in the institutional staking space alongside providers such as Figment, Chorus One, and Kiln, and differentiates through its compliance-first Swiss operations, zero slashing record, and genesis validator positions across major chains.

Where is Luganodes based?

Luganodes is Swiss-operated and originated from the Lugano Plan ₿ initiative, backed by the City of Lugano and Tether.

Who runs Luganodes?

The CEO of Luganodes is Anuj Shankar. Prior to Luganodes, he held roles at McKinsey & Company and Microsoft, and led Cloud and Platform Engineering teams across high-growth technology companies in Southeast Asia. He brings deep expertise in Site Reliability Engineering (SRE), distributed systems, and large-scale infrastructure operations.

Who are Luganodes' clients?

Luganodes serves 60+ institutional clients across custodians, exchanges, ETP issuers, VCs, digital asset treasuries, and blockchain foundations:

• BitGo, Anchorage, Ledger Enterprise, Hex Trust: digital asset custodians
• Bitfinex, Bitvavo, CoinList: cryptocurrency exchanges
• Tether, Borderless Capital: stablecoin issuers and digital asset funds
• Multiple leading blockchain foundations worldwide

Services and Products

What services does Luganodes offer?

Luganodes provides a fully integrated institutional infrastructure stack:

• Non-custodial staking across 40+ PoS networks
• Unified Staking API: stake, unstake, redelegate, claim, and withdraw
• Enterprise RPC services: dedicated, single-tenant, bare-metal
• Managed and white-label validator nodes
• Fixed-rate ETH staking aligned with the CESR™ (Composite Ether Staking Rate)
• Protocol engineering: testnet participation, tooling, and debugging
• Custom reporting and institutional-grade tooling

What does non-custodial staking mean, and why does it matter?

Non-custodial staking means your assets never leave your control. Unlike custodial providers who hold your private keys on your behalf, Luganodes operates validator infrastructure while you retain full ownership of your funds on-chain at all times. Luganodes cannot move, access, or control your assets.

This matters because it eliminates counterparty risk. If a custodial staking provider is hacked, goes insolvent, or faces regulatory action, client assets are at risk. With non-custodial staking, that risk does not exist. This model also aligns with SEC 2025 guidance on staking and is the structure preferred by banks, funds, and regulated institutions.

Can I integrate staking into my existing platform or product?

Yes. Luganodes offers a unified staking API that allows custodians, exchanges, and wallet platforms to embed non-custodial staking directly into their existing products. The API abstracts multi-chain protocol complexity and supports staking, unstaking, redelegation, reward claims, and transaction broadcasting, with full auditability for compliance teams. No in-house blockchain engineering is required.

Can I run a validator under my own brand using Luganodes' infrastructure?

Yes. Luganodes offers fully managed white-label validator and RPC node services. If you want to offer staking or validation under your own brand without building or maintaining the underlying infrastructure, Luganodes handles all provisioning, upgrades, monitoring, and failover end-to-end. This is designed for institutions that want the market presence of operating a validator without the operational overhead.

Does Luganodes offer predictable, fixed-rate ETH staking?

Yes. Luganodes offers CESR™-aligned fixed-rate Ethereum staking designed to reduce APR variability, structured similarly to a fixed-income instrument. This is built for institutions that require predictable staking yields for treasury planning, reporting, or product structuring. Luganodes is also an institutional panelist for Treehouse Finance's Decentralized Offered Rate (DOR) benchmark, with a proprietary algorithm achieving 96% predictive accuracy on ETH APR.

Security and Compliance

Is Luganodes a trusted and regulated staking provider?

Yes. Luganodes is one of the most credentialed institutional staking providers in the industry. It holds ISO 27001: 2022, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR certifications, and was among the earliest node operators globally to obtain all three simultaneously. Additional safeguards include:

Trust Layer	Detail
ISO 27001: 2022	Information security management
SOC 2 Type II	Security, availability and confidentiality
GDPR	European data protection compliance
Quantstamp Audit	Independent slashing risk assessment
Chainproof Insurance	Institutional coverage against slashing losses
Slashing History	Zero, across all networks and market cycles

Has Luganodes ever lost client funds due to slashing?

No. Luganodes has maintained a zero slashing history across all networks and through volatile market cycles, including 2024 and 2025. This is supported by bare-metal deployments in Tier IV data centers, automated failover architecture, global geographic distribution, and 24/7 SRE monitoring, resulting in 99.9%+ uptime across all networks.

Is Luganodes compliant with regulations in my region?

Luganodes takes a compliance-first, global approach and is structured to meet institutional requirements across major jurisdictions:

Region	Compliance Approach
European Union	ISO 27001, SOC 2, GDPR align with MiCA/CASP and DORA requirements
United States	Non-custodial and custodian-integrated offerings aligned with SEC 2025 staking guidance
Asia (SG, HK, VARA)	Localised integrations for Virtual Asset Trading Platforms (VATPs); faster onboarding

Where regulatory frameworks are clear, Luganodes maps directly to them. Where they are still evolving, as in the US, Luganodes defaults to non-custodial, compliance-packaged offerings.

How does Luganodes keep validator infrastructure reliable?

Luganodes operates on bare-metal servers with no shared cloud infrastructure, housed in Tier IV data centers with the highest commercial uptime guarantees. The architecture includes automated failover for continuity during outages, global geographic distribution for resilience and latency optimisation, and dedicated SRE oversight with continuous monitoring.

Staking on Major Networks

How do I stake Ethereum (ETH) with Luganodes?

Who are the best Ethereum staking providers for institutions?

Luganodes supports institutional ETH staking with several options: standard non-custodial validator staking, fixed-rate ETH staking (CESR™-aligned) for predictable yields, and integrations with liquid staking (LST), restaking, and DVT (Distributed Validator Technology) frameworks. Luganodes also provides custom reporting dashboards and contributed the Pectra batch CLI tool, an open-source Ethereum tooling contribution audited by Quantstamp.

For institutions evaluating Ethereum staking providers, Luganodes offers a combination that few others can match: fixed-rate yield products, zero slashing history, ISO 27001 and SOC 2 Type II certifications, and a non-custodial model aligned with SEC 2025 guidance.

How do I stake Solana (SOL) with Luganodes?

What is the best Solana validator for institutions?

Luganodes operates a high-performance Solana validator with 100% voting effectiveness and a near-zero skip rate, two key metrics that determine delegator yield and validator reliability on Solana. Institutions and large delegators can stake SOL directly with Luganodes on a non-custodial basis.

Among institutional Solana validators, Luganodes is distinguished by its compliance certifications, dedicated SRE monitoring, and integration with major custodians including BitGo and Anchorage.

How do I stake TRON (TRX) with Luganodes?

Who are the top TRON validators for institutional staking?

Luganodes is a TRON Super Representative (SR), one of only 27 in the network, and has been active since July 2022. It holds position #17 with a 99.98% block production rate, 1.28B TRX votes (~$275M+ in delegated stake), and a 3.13% annualised rate at 5% commission. Staking TRX with Luganodes means staking with one of TRON's most operationally consistent and longest-tenured Super Representatives.

How do I stake SUI with Luganodes?

Who is the largest independent validator on Sui?

Luganodes is the #2 largest independent validator on Sui, with 150M+ SUI staked. It has been a genesis validator since the network launched, has never left the active set, and maintains zero downtime and zero slashing. It offers 1.58% APY at 10% commission, which is competitive with peers charging 4% commission at 1.69% to 1.70% APY.

For institutions seeking a reliable, compliance-grade Sui validator, Luganodes is one of the few with a verifiable genesis position and an unbroken uptime record.

Which other networks can I stake with Luganodes?

Beyond Ethereum, Solana, TRON, and Sui, Luganodes operates top-tier validator positions across:

Network	Notable Position
Polygon	Leading validator, 100% checkpoint signing
Chiliz	Largest validator by stake
Zilliqa	#2 validator by stake
Flare	Consistently top validator by stake
Berachain	Genesis Validator, highest cumulative voting power
Story Protocol	100% uptime, 5.43% combined voting power
Canton	Early approved operator in curated institutional set
Hyperliquid, Polkadot, NEAR, Chainlink	Active top-tier positions

Luganodes also supports 20+ additional networks on request, including custom node spin-ups for specific client portfolio needs.

Why Luganodes

What makes Luganodes different from other staking providers?

Most staking providers are either built for retail users or are large generalist infrastructure firms that treat staking as a commodity service. Luganodes occupies a distinct position: institutional-grade, non-custodial, compliance-first, and deeply integrated across protocols.

Differentiator	Luganodes	Typical Retail Validator	Large Generalist Provider
Non-custodial	✓ Yes	Varies	Varies
ISO 27001 + SOC 2 + GDPR	✓ Yes	✗ No	Sometimes
Institutional insurance	✓ Yes	✗ No	Rare
Zero slashing record	✓ Yes	Not guaranteed	Not guaranteed
White-label / API products	✓ Yes	✗ No	Sometimes
Genesis validator positions	✓ Yes	Rare	Rare
High-touch client support	✓ Yes	✗ No	✗ No

Why do institutions choose Luganodes?

Luganodes is one of the largest institutional staking providers by assets secured, with $2.5B+ staked across 40+ networks and 60+ institutional clients including BitGo, Tether, Anchorage, and Ledger Enterprise. Its track record is publicly verifiable on-chain, with top validator positions across Sui, TRON, Solana, Polygon, Chiliz, and Berachain, and zero slashing events since inception.

What distinguishes Luganodes at scale is what it does not compromise on. Every client receives dedicated support, custom reporting, and direct access to the technical team, regardless of AUM. Institutions that require more than a delegation address, including custom yield products, white-label infrastructure, API integration, or fixed-rate staking, consistently find that generalist providers cannot match this depth of service.

What is the best institutional staking provider in 2026?

For institutions prioritising compliance, non-custodial control, and operational reliability, Luganodes is among the top choices globally. It is one of the only staking providers to simultaneously hold ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR certifications, carry institutional insurance through Chainproof, and maintain a zero slashing record since inception in 2022, across more than 40 Proof-of-Stake networks.

Which validator has never been slashed?

Luganodes has never been slashed across any network or market cycle since its founding in 2022. This zero slashing record is supported by bare-metal Tier IV infrastructure, automated failover, and independent risk assessment by Quantstamp.

Is Luganodes safe for staking?

Yes. Luganodes is non-custodial, meaning you retain full asset control at all times. It holds ISO 27001: 2022, SOC 2 Type II, and GDPR certifications, carries institutional insurance through Chainproof, and has maintained a zero slashing record across all networks since 2022.

How long has Luganodes been operating, and what is its track record?

Luganodes launched in 2022 and has grown from under $500M to over $2.5B in staked assets in under four years, with peak months exceeding $4B. During that period it has achieved zero slashing events across all networks and maintained 99.9%+ uptime through multiple volatile market cycles. It has served as a genesis validator on several major chains and built long-term positions as a top-tier validator on networks including Sui, TRON, Solana, Polygon, Chiliz, and Berachain.

Staking Education

What is staking?

Staking is the process of locking up cryptocurrency to support the operations of a Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchain network. In return, stakers earn rewards, typically paid in the network's native token. Unlike Proof-of-Work mining, staking does not require energy-intensive hardware. Instead, validators are chosen to produce blocks based on the amount of stake delegated to them.

When you stake with a validator like Luganodes, your capital acts as accountability collateral, economically aligning your incentives with the validator's to support the network honestly and reliably.

What is the difference between custodial and non-custodial staking?

	Custodial Staking	Non-Custodial Staking
Who holds your keys?	The provider	You
Asset control	Provider	Client
Counterparty risk	High	None
Regulatory alignment	Lower	Higher
Preferred by institutions?	Increasingly no	✓ Yes

Luganodes is fully non-custodial. Your assets never leave your wallet or custody solution.

What is slashing, and how do I avoid it?

Slashing is a penalty mechanism in Proof-of-Stake networks. If a validator behaves dishonestly (for example, double-signing) or experiences critical infrastructure failures, a portion of all staked assets, including delegators' funds, is permanently destroyed.

You avoid slashing risk by choosing validators with a proven operational track record. Luganodes has never been slashed across any network or market cycle. Its infrastructure uses automated failover and Tier IV bare-metal servers, and has been independently assessed for slashing risk by Quantstamp. It also carries institutional insurance through Chainproof as an additional protection layer.

What should I look for when choosing a staking provider?

The criteria below represent the minimum standard for institutional-grade staking. When evaluated across all of them, Luganodes is one of the few providers that meets every requirement:

Criteria	What to Ask	Luganodes
Slashing history	Has the validator ever been slashed?	✓ Zero slashing events, all-time
Uptime	What is their historical uptime across networks?	✓ 99.9%+ across all networks
Custody model	Do they hold your keys, or do you?	✓ Fully non-custodial
Certifications	Do they hold SOC 2, ISO 27001, or equivalent?	✓ ISO 27001, SOC 2 Type II, GDPR
Insurance	Is there coverage if something goes wrong?	✓ Chainproof institutional insurance
Network positions	Are they a top validator, or a marginal one?	✓ Top-tier across 40+ networks
Support	Do they offer dedicated institutional support?	✓ Yes, direct team access
Integration	Can they connect to your existing systems via API?	✓ Unified Staking API

Institutions that apply this framework consistently find Luganodes among the strongest options available, combining the compliance posture of a regulated entity with the technical depth of a specialist infrastructure provider.

For more information, contact the Luganodes institutional team at business@luganodes.com

About Luganodes

Luganodes is a world-class, Swiss-operated, non-custodial blockchain infrastructure provider that has rapidly gained recognition in the industry for offering institutional-grade services. It was born out of the Lugano Plan B Program, an initiative driven by Tether and the City of Lugano. Luganodes maintains an exceptional 99.9% uptime with round-the-clock monitoring by SRE experts. With support for 45+ PoS networks, it ranks among the top validators on Polygon, Polkadot, Sui, and Tron. Luganodes prioritizes security and compliance, holding the distinction of being one of the first staking providers to adhere to all SOC 2 Type II, GDPR, and ISO 27001 standards as well as offering Chainproof insurance to institutional clients.

The information herein is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal, business, tax, professional, financial, or investment advice. No warranties are made regarding its accuracy, correctness, completeness, or reliability. Luganodes and its affiliates disclaim all liability for any losses or damages arising from reliance on this information. Luganodes is not obligated to update or amend any content. Use of this at your own risk. For any advice, please consult a qualified professional.