Anchorage Digital is a U.S. digital-asset bank founded in 2017 by Diogo Mónica and Nathan McCauley. In January 2021, it became the first crypto company to receive a federal OCC license—a national trust bank charter (Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A.)—and for a long time remained the only such player. For family wealth, this is a story about regulatory-grade custody: under one license, custody, staking, settlement, trading, and governance of digital assets are brought together.
Scale
A Series D round of $350 million led by KKR in late 2021 valued the company at $3 billion. In February 2026, Tether invested $100 million and raised the valuation to $4.2 billion; at the same time, the company's first-ever employee tender offer took place—a buyback of employee shares at the same valuation, without raising new primary capital. According to its own data, Anchorage serves institutional clients in more than 30 countries.
What the OCC License Means
A national trust bank charter from the OCC is a federal license, but not a full-fledged depository bank. Anchorage does not accept deposits, does not open checking or savings accounts, and is not part of the FDIC insurance system. What the license does provide is federal supervision, capital requirements, a BSA/AML program, and qualified custodian status: registered investment advisers and funds that are required by SEC rules to hold client assets with a qualified custodian rely on this. Technically, assets are held in segregated accounts, with hardware key protection and no rehypothecation: the client remains the owner, the bank provides custody and operations. A comparable role for traditional securities is played by classic custodians like BNY and the infrastructure of Euroclear and Clearstream.
⚙️ The OCC license provides supervision, capital requirements, and segregation of client assets. The market risk of the coins themselves and the absence of FDIC insurance remain with the investor—this is institutional control over custody, not a guarantee of returns.
Stablecoins and the GENIUS Act
After the passage of the GENIUS Act (signed July 18, 2025), stablecoin issuers gained a clear federal regime: full reserves in cash and short-term Treasuries plus bank-level supervision. A federal license becomes a convenient anchor point here, and Anchorage has taken advantage of this: Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. was chosen by Tether as the issuer of its U.S.-oriented token USA₮. In parallel, the bank is developing a white-label platform for issuing third-party branded stablecoins. For families, this means that settlement and custody of tokens occur within a supervised bank, rather than with an offshore issuer without reporting. The broader context of the topic is covered in the article on types and regulation of stablecoins.
What's Important to Understand
This is an institutional product: onboarding and minimum volumes are heavy for a single family and are designed for funds, RIAs, and large family offices. It's worth keeping in mind the shareholder composition: Tether has been a major investor since February 2026, and Tether itself has its own complicated regulatory history. And Anchorage's exclusivity is fading: in December 2025, the OCC issued preliminary approvals to five applications at once—Circle, Ripple, Paxos, BitGo, and Fidelity Digital Assets—the federal license is transforming from a rare advantage into a new industry standard.
Regulatory History
The path has not been smooth. In April 2022—just 15 months after the license was issued—the OCC issued a consent order against Anchorage Digital Bank: the bank had not built a full BSA/AML program, primarily in terms of transaction monitoring and control of unhosted wallets. There was no monetary fine, but compliance requirements had to be addressed seriously. In 2025, the OCC lifted the consent order, citing improved compliance and bank stability. For families, this is a useful illustration: even a federal license does not equal automatic perfection, and the provider should be monitored as carefully as any counterparty—in the logic of AML/KYC for private clients.
When It Makes Sense for a Family
An Anchorage-style "wrapper" is justified where there is a large strategic allocation to digital assets and regulatory-grade custody is more important than simplicity: a fund or RIA needs a qualified custodian, there are significant positions on the balance sheet under staking and governance, and there are reporting and audit requirements. For one-off transactions and moderate volumes, an OTC desk or prime platform is often more practical—this is covered in articles on over-the-counter settlement and crypto for private wealth. Separately, it's worth thinking through the tax and inheritance aspects of custody—they vary greatly by country: crypto taxation and inheritance of digital assets.
Context: Crypto Enters the Banking System
The Anchorage story should be read more broadly. The company grew out of the idea of security-first custody—its founders came from the engineering culture of Docker and Square—attracted strategic investors including Visa, and bet on regulatory legitimacy at a time when most crypto businesses operated outside the banking perimeter. By 2026, the trend had reversed: after the GENIUS Act and the wave of national charters in 2025–2026, digital assets are being integrated into the banking system. For family wealth, this changes the selection logic—the primary question becomes which supervised institution holds the assets and on what terms, and only then which specific coins and protocols. In this frame of reference, Anchorage remains a benchmark: an early charter, accumulated compliance experience (including the lifted consent order), and a clear institutional perimeter. Comparison with traditional custodians is useful here: the same principles of segregation and supervision as BNY, only applied to on-chain assets.
🧭 A useful lens for families: look at crypto custody as choosing a bank counterparty—license, supervision, compliance history, and exit terms matter more than marketing promises of returns.
🍓 Anchorage is about regulatory-grade custody: federal OCC license, qualified custodian status, custody, staking, and settlement under unified supervision plus the role of issuer of the USA₮ stablecoin. What to remember: the banking license does not insure deposits, the entry threshold is high, and since December 2025, Anchorage has competitors with the same charters. This is a tool for large strategic allocations with an emphasis on regulatory reliability.
Key factual claims
- Anchorage Digital is a U.S. digital-asset bank founded in 2017 by Diogo Mónica and Nathan McCauley.
- A Series D round of $350 million led by KKR in late 2021 valued the company at $3 billion.
- After the passage of the GENIUS Act (signed July 18, 2025), stablecoin issuers gained a clear federal regime: full reserves in cash and short-term Treasuries plus bank-level supervision.