2023: The Flight to Safety—and the Path Forward

Anchorage Digital continued to advance a safe and secure digital asset ecosystem in a year marked by market and regulatory uncertainty. The ongoing Flight to Safety continued to drive new business growth at Anchorage Digital. In July, Bloomberg reported on assets under custody at Anchorage Digital Bank increasing more than 80% from Q4 of 2022 to Q1 of 2023, and they’ve continued to grow since. The broader market has also started to show signs of recovery, especially with the possibility of spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum on the horizon. 

If 2022 was the year to build, 2023 was the year to pave a path forward for the future of a safe, secure digital asset ecosystem. Over the course of 2023, Anchorage Digital partnered with leading institutions, expanded our offerings, and advanced forward-looking crypto policy. This year, we were proud to: 

• Support growing demand from RIAs. Market demand from registered investment advisors (RIAs) to participate in crypto continues to grow, and this year we were proud to support the next phase of mainstream and institutional adoption with our new offering for RIAs. Launched in November, the comprehensive custody and trading solution is built on a separately managed account (SMA) structure to give RIAs and their end clients exposure to digital assets. Earlier in the year, we also announced a partnership with Eaglebrook Advisors—one of the largest SEC-registered crypto SMA platforms—to provide wealth managers and financial advisors with streamlined access to crypto SMAs.
• Bring traditional market structure to the crypto industry. In August, we partnered with institutional crypto exchange EDX Markets—backed by major players in traditional finance, including Citadel Securities and Charles Schwab—to serve as the custody provider for their new clearinghouse business. The partnership brings market structure standards from traditional finance, providing the regulatory certainty that leading institutions need to participate in crypto. As part of our commitment to market structure reform, we also proposed four key pillars for market structure reform to help inform the legislative process.
• Strengthen the evolving crypto ecosystem. As the digital asset ecosystem continues to evolve, Anchorage Digital grows with it. This year, we added support for Snapshot voting, providing a new avenue for our clients to participate in governance. Following the ETH Shapella upgrade, we also witnessed an uptick in institutional demand for ETH staking: the volume of ETH staked on our platform has grown by over four times since the end of 2022. As of this writing, nearly 50% of our institutional clients who hold ETH on the platform are staking it with Anchorage Digital.
• Add new digital assets to the platform. Anchorage Digital supports hundreds of assets in response to market demand. This year, we continued to expand our platform by launching support for new assets including Worldcoin (WLD), Polygon (MATIC), and Mythos (MYTH). Our supported assets have also more than doubled since the start of 2022.
• Reinforce our commitment to compliance. January 2023 marked two years since Anchorage Digital Bank received our federal bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), making us the first—and only—federally chartered digital asset bank. This year, we continued to break new ground in digital asset regulation with a significant expansion to the management team of Anchorage Digital Bank, adding a slate of senior executives with decades of experience working at the intersection of security, compliance, and risk management. We also appointed Julie L. Williams, a history-making veteran of the OCC, to the board of directors at Anchorage Digital Bank.
• Shape critical crypto policy discussions. As Congress works toward clear and consistent rules for the digital asset ecosystem, Anchorage Digital continues to play an active role in shaping the debate by engaging with lawmakers and regulators in DC. Leveraging our experience as a qualified custodian, we submitted a comment letter to the SEC on proposed changes to the Custody Rule, which would require RIAs to safeguard client assets with a qualified custodian. Our executive leadership team also contributed commentary to major media outlets on the most critical regulatory issues of the day, including stablecoin legislation, digital asset clarity in Singapore, and the spot Bitcoin ETF approval process.

Looking Ahead 

Over the past year, the industry has moved closer toward a safer, more secure digital asset ecosystem. And, with potential SEC approval of spot ETFs for Bitcoin and Ethereum, momentum around traditional market standards, and the ongoing Flight to Safety, that future looks bright.

Against the backdrop of market and regulatory tailwinds, one thing is clear: the role of safe and secure digital asset infrastructure is—and will continue to be—essential to its success. 

Anchorage Digital used the bear market as an opportunity to build; and now, as we look toward unlocking the next trillion-dollar inflow into crypto, we are proud to continue advancing responsible innovation.  

Interested in accessing digital assets with Anchorage Digital? Please get in touch.