Anchorage Highlights from 2019
Diogo Mónica and Nathan McCauley
Anchorage operated in stealth from its founding in 2017 through the entirety of 2018, and publicly launched in January of 2019. We’re incredibly proud of what our team has accomplished this year. Here are just a few highlights:
Launched the most advanced institutional crypto custody solution
We entered the market as the most advanced crypto custodian for institutional investors, with a modern solution that’s both safer and more usable than cold storage. Anchorage’s breakthrough technology has earned coverage in the Wall Street Journal, Wired, Bloomberg, Fortune, TechCrunch, and American Banker, among many others.
Procured industry-leading end-to-end insurance
It turns out that the Anchorage solution unties seemingly unrelated knots around crypto custody, including one that surprised us: insurance. In short, most crypto custodians must use different insurance policies for their hot and cold storage systems. Because Anchorage is engineered with no such distinction between hot and cold, we are proud to offer a first for our industry: end-to-end insurance covering digital assets throughout their entire life cycle, whether in use or at rest.
Became a Founding Member of the Libra Association
We are a mission-driven organization working to bring about a safe and accessible economy, strengthened by institutional investment. To further realize this vision, we are proud to serve as a Founding Member of the Libra Association alongside many of the world’s most trusted leaders in technology. Furthermore, we are grateful to Senator Mike Rounds of South Dakota for his letter in support of Anchorage’s membership in the Libra Association, in the spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation.
Raised a $40 Million Series B led by Visa and Blockchain Capital
Because digital assets are bearer assets, custody means more than just safekeeping. Custody means enabling asset usability through staking, voting, trading, and other services typical of prime brokers. To meet rising customer demand for such services, we raised a $40 million Series B round led by Blockchain Capital, the leading VC firm in blockchain innovation. Alongside Blockchain Capital, we were thrilled to welcome Visa as an investor. Long on the vanguard of financial infrastructure, Visa was “fintech” before fintech existed, and we’ve looked to them as a model since the beginning. This major round of investment puts Anchorage alongside fellow fintech leaders like Stripe, Affirm, and Brex on the list of San Francisco’s hottest startups of 2019.
More than doubled the size of our team
To meet our ambitious goals, we’ve assembled a team of some of the brightest minds from the worlds of security, finance, and distributed systems. This year we’ve grown our team from 25 to more than 55, attracting top talent from leading tech companies like Google, Apple, and Facebook, as well as leaders in financial services like Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and BNY Mellon.
Received a charter for Anchorage Trust Company, a Qualified Custodian
A big part of advancing institutional participation in the digital asset class is helping our clients operate in accordance with applicable laws and regulations. To that end, we opened Anchorage Trust Company, a state-chartered trust company with fiduciary powers, located in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. As a Qualified Custodian, Anchorage Trust Company helps SEC-registered investment advisers meet their obligations under federal law. Anchorage Trust Company is also the first Qualified Custodian that does not use hot wallets or cold storage, eliminating vulnerabilities that expose private keys to risk.
Onboarded many of the world’s leading crypto funds
Since its inception, Anchorage has been focused on solving problems for institutional investors who hold digital assets. We put the needs of our customers at the forefront of decision-making, from asset support to user experience and beyond. Our industry-leading product and client-centric approach has attracted institutional investors whose assets under management total in the billions, including such leading crypto funds as a16z, Blockchain Capital, BlockTower, Electric Capital, Ikigai Asset Management, Paradigm, ParaFi Capital, and Polychain.
Expanded our list of supported assets
One important goal of ours is to support all assets that meet our standards for quality and security. This year, we expanded our list of supported assets beyond the best-known assets like Bitcoin and Ethereum, to include DeFi projects like Maker and Synthetix, international payment networks like Ripple and Stellar, smart contract platforms like Tezos, and a host of others. We look forward to further expanding our offerings to meet growing client demand.
Generated yield for clients via staking and participatory airdrops
Part of the founding vision behind Anchorage is to allow institutional investors to get the most out of their assets through secure on-chain participation. This year, that vision became reality, as we announced support for activities like Tezos baking and participatory airdrops. In August, 20% of Anchorage clients participated in Edgeware signaling — a form of airdrop that many eligible clients viewed as part of their fiduciary duty to participate in.
Enabled Maker voting through Anchorage Governance
This year we launched Anchorage Governance, the most advanced and secure institutional platform for on-chain voting. Since governance decisions can directly impact both the health and value of digital assets, participation in on-chain voting is a high priority for many institutional investors. Starting with MakerDAO’s Maker, Anchorage Governance allows institutional investors to meet their fiduciary duties by voting on governance questions. And with a growing number of projects offering governance models that require active participation, we’ll be adding support for more assets in the future.
Engaged the developer community
We believe that the challenge of digital asset custody is at its core a technical one, and that technical challenges require technical solutions. As we clear new hurdles, we’re proud to give back to the developer community by sharing knowledge that can help accelerate the work of other teams in crypto. This year we published an open source Golang library for programmatic Tezos interactions, led a workshop at StrangeLoop on end-to-end type safety with GraphQL, and shared lessons learned using GraphQL for iOS.
Joined the public conversation around institutional crypto
We’re always looking for opportunities to share ideas with other thought leaders in our space. Over the last year, it has been our privilege to take part in a variety of forward-looking discussions. We took part in keynote fireside chats at CoinAlts and DAS: Markets, shared our views on digital asset proliferation, technical custody, and the future of crypto abstractions at San Francisco Blockchain Week, explored the future of custody at Consensus: Invest, and more. Beyond live events, we were glad to participate in substantive discussions through a16z’s Founding Stories, Blockchain Insider, DealMakers, Chain Reaction, and the Stephan Livera podcast, among others.
Thank you to our clients, partners, investors, and to our extraordinary team for making all of this possible. We’re looking forward to reaching new heights together in 2020 and beyond.
Services are offered either through Anchorage Hold LLC, a Delaware limited liability company and registered Money Services Business, or Anchorage Trust Company, a South Dakota-chartered trust company. Anchorage Hold and Anchorage Trust Company are not registered with the SEC. Services are not yet offered to residents of New York. Anchorage Hold and Anchorage Trust Company do not engage in the offer or sale of securities or digital assets, and do not provide legal, tax, or investment advice. Anchorage Hold LLC and Anchorage Trust Company are wholly-owned subsidiaries of Anchor Labs Inc., a Delaware corporation headquartered in San Francisco, California.
