Anchorage Digital

Anchorage Digital Bank N.A. is the first federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., having received its charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in January 2021. It operates as an unequivocal qualified custodian under federal supervision. The firm holds additional licenses through Anchorage Digital Singapore as a Major Payment Institution licensed by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, and Anchorage Digital New York holds a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services.

The firm monetizes through custody fees, trading spreads and commissions via its agency trading desk, staking as a service, and settlement operations including its Atlas network. It also earns from stablecoin reward programs and infrastructure services for issuing client stablecoins. Specific fee schedules are not publicly disclosed.

Atlas is Anchorage Digital’s proprietary on-chain settlement system. It is designed to eliminate counterparty, delivery, and bankruptcy exposure risks that are inherent in off-chain settlement models used by many trading venues. Settlement occurs directly on-chain through Anchorage’s custody infrastructure.

Trades are executed through multiple entities: Anchorage Hold LLC provides agency trading services, while A1 Ltd. operates as a principal trading business. The firm discloses these roles in its legal disclaimers, which separate its agency and principal trading activities into distinct legal entities.

The firm serves institutional clients, which it describes as the largest and most prestigious institutions. While client names are not systematically disclosed, the platform’s marketing frames institutional traders, asset managers, corporates, and protocols as its primary audience. It does not offer retail accounts.

No. Anchorage Digital is not a family office. It is a regulated crypto financial-services and infrastructure company serving institutional clients. It is often miscategorized because of its trust-and-custody language, but the underlying entity, Anchor Labs, Inc., is a Delaware corporation with external venture and strategic investors.

Assets in custody are held in segregated accounts under Anchorage Digital Bank’s qualified custodian framework. The firm states that digital assets held in custody are not guaranteed by Anchorage Digital and are not covered by FDIC, SIPC, or SDIC insurance. The bank charter subjects custody operations to federal regulatory standards for asset protection, independent of deposit insurance schemes.