Anchorage Digital

At a glance

What it does

Custody is holding assets on behalf of someone else, so that they stay the owner's property if the custodian fails. For crypto that means keeping the private keys that control the tokens. Anchorage keeps those keys for asset managers, hedge funds, corporations, protocols and government bodies, and adds services on top: trading, staking and settlement.

A qualified custodian is a firm that US rules allow to hold client assets for regulated investment advisers and funds. Anchorage's bank charter puts it plainly in that category. It began as a South Dakota trust company in July 2019 and converted to a national trust bank chartered by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) in January 2021, the first federally chartered digital-asset bank. It also holds a New York BitLicense and a Major Payment Institution licence in Singapore.

Large institutions use it. BlackRock added Anchorage as a custodian for its spot crypto ETFs in April 2025, and Cantor Fitzgerald chose it, with Copper, as collateral custodian for a bitcoin financing programme in March 2025.

How it is different

Anchorage has moved from holding tokens to issuing them. On 12 May 2025 it acquired Mountain Protocol, the issuer of the USDM yield-bearing stablecoin, and wound USDM down in three phases that ended on 22 August 2025. Holders were left with a token backed by a Uniswap pool of USDC rather than Treasury bills. There was no default and no hack; it was a business decision.

Then it became Tether's route into the regulated US market. USAT is a dollar stablecoin issued by Anchorage Digital Bank and developed with Tether, announced in September 2025 and live on Ethereum from 27 January 2026. Tether's main token, USDT, holds gold and bitcoin in its reserve, which the GENIUS Act does not allow for a US payment stablecoin, so a separate token from a chartered bank is how Tether serves US users. Anchorage was also a launch partner of the Global Dollar Network behind Paxos's USDG in November 2024.

Where it fits

Anatomy of a tokenized fund explains the custody layer and who sits in it. Which chains stablecoins live on, and who distributes them covers custodians as gatekeepers for institutional money. The rules explains the GENIUS Act and bank-issued stablecoins such as USAT. Who's who in stablecoins places it among issuers and custodians. Related profiles: Tether, Fireblocks, Paxos and BlackRock.

Risks and open questions

It has a compliance history. The OCC issued a consent order against Anchorage Digital Bank on 21 April 2022 over weak anti-money-laundering controls, without a fine, and lifted it in August 2025. A repeat would weigh heavily on a bank whose charter is its main asset.

Its closeness to Tether is new. Tether is both an investor and the partner behind USAT, so Anchorage's stablecoin business depends on one counterparty whose own reserves have long drawn scrutiny.

Scale is not public. Anchorage says it secures "tens of billions of dollars" but publishes no dated total of assets under custody.

The Mountain Protocol wind-down shows what an acquirer can do with a product. Holders of any token Anchorage issues or acquires carry that risk.

What to watch next

• USAT's growth under the GENIUS Act: the law takes effect by 18 January 2027 at the latest, and USAT's supply shows whether a Tether-linked, bank-issued token wins US users.
• More issuance clients: other brands issuing stablecoins through Anchorage would make it a platform, like Paxos, rather than a single-partner issuer.
• Custody for tokenized funds: holding RWA tokens for managers such as BlackRock would extend its role from crypto ETFs into tokenized assets.
• Final GENIUS Act rules from the OCC: the Comptroller said in August 2026 a final rule would come by November, and its terms set what a bank issuer like Anchorage may hold in reserve and pay to holders.