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 (announced December 15, 2021) valued the company at over $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 secures "tens of billions of dollars" in digital assets and operates through its U.S. bank, Anchorage Digital Singapore (licensed by MAS), and Anchorage Digital New York (NYDFS BitLicense); the company does not publish a count of countries served.
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.
Stablecoins and the GENIUS Act
After the passage of the GENIUS Act (signed July 18, 2025, Public Law 119-27), stablecoin issuers gained a clear federal regime: reserves of at least 1:1 in cash, demand deposits, and Treasuries with a remaining maturity of 93 days or less, 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 with regular 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: on December 12, 2025, the OCC issued conditional approvals for five national trust bank charter applications at once—de novo charters for First National Digital Currency Bank, N.A. (Circle's entity) and Ripple National Trust Bank, plus conversions from state trust companies for BitGo Bank & Trust, N.A., Fidelity Digital Assets, N.A., and Paxos Trust Company, N.A.—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. The order's findings name internal controls for customer due diligence, procedures for monitoring suspicious activity, the BSA officer and staffing, and training, along with violations of the due diligence rules for correspondent accounts of foreign financial institutions (31 U.S.C. § 5318(i), 31 C.F.R. § 1010.610). The requirement to identify transactions involving unhosted wallets sits in the order's remedial articles, among the corrective measures. There was no monetary fine—the OCC database records the amount as $0—but compliance requirements had to be addressed seriously. On August 18, 2025, the OCC terminated the order (AA-ENF-2025-44), stating that the safety and soundness of the bank and its compliance with laws and regulations do not require the order's continued existence. 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—Anchorage itself describes its founders as patent-holding security engineers—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.
Q/A
Does a national trust bank charter make Anchorage FDIC-insured?
No. The OCC charter makes Anchorage Digital Bank a federally supervised national trust bank, but the 2021 approval describes the converted business as a non-depository trust company. FDIC insurance protects eligible deposits at insured institutions; it does not insure cryptoassets or their market value.
Did Anchorage’s 2022 BSA/AML consent order remain in force?
No. The OCC terminated the order in August 2025 after the bank demonstrated compliance or the agency otherwise concluded continued enforcement was unnecessary. Termination ends the order; it does not erase the underlying compliance history, which remains relevant to counterparty review.
Does OCC supervision protect the value of coins held in custody?
No. OCC supervision addresses the bank, its controls, capital, governance and compliance; it is not a guarantee against a token’s price fall, protocol failure or counterparty event. The custody agreement, asset segregation, insurance scope, withdrawal mechanics and supported networks still need separate review.
Does one-to-one stablecoin backing make the token federally insured?
No. The GENIUS Act requires eligible payment stablecoins to be backed at least one-to-one and imposes redemption and reserve-disclosure rules, but it expressly says payment stablecoins are not backed by the United States and are not covered by FDIC or NCUA insurance.
Were the GENIUS Act rules fully operational by 22 August 2026?
No. OCC implementation was still at the proposed-rule stage on that date. The Act takes effect on the earlier of 18 months after 18 July 2025 or 120 days after the primary federal regulators issue final implementing rules, so enactment and full regulatory operation are not the same milestone.