Pier Two

Pier Two is an Australian-founded, globally operating staking service and infrastructure provider established in 2018. The company targets institutional clients -- asset managers, exchanges, custodians, and regulated financial entities -- that need to earn yield on digital assets without transferring custody to a third party. Its non-custodial model keeps delegated assets under the staker's withdrawal authority at all times, addressing the counterparty-risk problem that has historically deterred regulated institutions from participating in proof-of-stake networks.

Core Mechanism

Pier Two operates its own validator infrastructure across multiple proof-of-stake networks. Institutional clients stake through Pier Two's Control Centre, a self-service dashboard that handles KYC and compliance onboarding, then delegates tokens to Pier Two's validators. Staked assets are never transferred to Pier Two's control; the delegating institution retains withdrawal authority while Pier Two's validators participate in consensus and pass rewards back each epoch.

On Solana, staking rewards accrue per epoch (approximately every 48 hours), compound automatically, and can be claimed or reinvested via the Control Centre. Withdrawal from a Solana stake position settles in up to 48 hours. The Control Centre also supports API key generation, enabling programmatic integration with institutional workflows and third-party platforms, along with customised reporting and on-demand reward monitoring.

For institutions holding digital assets through regulated custodians, Pier Two has built native integrations with Fireblocks, BitGo, and Zodia, allowing clients to initiate and monitor staking directly from their custodial console without moving assets to an external wallet. The Fireblocks integration supports native SOL staking to Pier Two validators, with additional networks planned.

Supported Networks and Assets

Pier Two supports staking across Ethereum, Solana, Polygon, TON, and NEAR Protocol, plus Bitcoin staking through the Babylon protocol. The platform also provides network infrastructure services integrating with EigenLayer, Chainlink, Jito, Symbiotic, and Karak. Wallet support for Solana staking includes Ledger, Phantom, Trust Wallet, Solflare, and Coinbase.

Solana Infrastructure and Ecosystem Role

Solana is a significant and growing focus for Pier Two. The company has operated its Solana staking service since 2020 without slashing or security incidents. It describes itself as a major consensus partner and source of institutional adoption on the network and has published technical commentary on Solana infrastructure developments including the Alpenglow consensus upgrade.

In October 2025, Pier Two expanded its Solana presence through the acquisition of Blockport, a long-running Solana validator that had operated for over three years with 540-plus epochs of block production, 99.9% uptime, and more than 225,000 staked SOL from delegators. Blockport co-founders Adrian Ciaffoncini and Nik Herrmann joined Pier Two to lead its Solana operations. The Blockport validator was rebranded as Pier Two Infrastructure and continues operating as a separate validator alongside Pier Two's existing Solana validator, giving the company two independent validator identities on the network.

Security and Compliance

Pier Two holds ISO/IEC 27001:2022 certification for information security management, SOC 2 Type I and SOC 2 Type II reports, and NORS certification. The SOC 2 Type II surveillance window commenced in March 2025. The company also offers slashing coverage as part of its institutional service terms and targets 99.99% uptime across its infrastructure.

These compliance credentials matter for institutional clients whose internal governance or regulatory environment requires audited security controls and third-party verification before allocating to staking. Solana currently has no in-protocol slashing mechanism, though Pier Two's coverage policy addresses broader operational risk.

Team and Background

Pier Two was founded in Australia in 2018. CEO Patrick McNab has described performance, customer support, and security as the core institutional differentiators the company competes on. The October 2025 acquisition of Blockport brought Adrian Ciaffoncini and Nik Herrmann on as heads of Solana operations. As of 2025, Pier Two reported approximately 3 billion dollars in total staked assets across its supported networks.

Infrastructure Model

The platform runs on hybrid cloud and bare metal deployments across multiple geographic zones, supporting 24/7 operations. In addition to staking, Pier Two offers Network Services -- supplying infrastructure from testnet through mainnet for blockchain protocol teams -- and Lantern, a light client designed to extend Ethereum connectivity to any device. The multi-product approach positions the company as a broader infrastructure partner for blockchain networks, not solely a retail or institutional staking front-end.