Anchorage set for growth following $80M fundraise

Last month, digital asset entity Anchorage received a bank charter from the United States Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, or OCC. This month, the outfit has added $80 million in funds. 

“Today, we are pleased to announce that Anchorage has raised an $80 million Series C, led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund, with participation from a16z, Blockchain Capital, Lux, and Indico,” a Thursday blog post announcement from Anchorage says, adding:  

“This new capital will allow us to rapidly scale to meet the rising demand for participation in the digital asset space, particularly among corporations and traditional financial institutions.”

In January, the OCC dished out a banking charter to Anchorage — a first by the governing body for a blockchain company. The ruling came with a number of guidelines, including specific restrictions preventing Anchorage from acting as a bank in the traditional sense. 

Anchorage started as a digital asset custody solution, later expanding into other crypto finance endeavors. Its recent blog post details:

“This new round of funding will help us help institutions participate in new ways — by bringing crypto to their users, by diversifying their corporate treasuries, and by enabling a wide range of emerging use cases.”

Upcoming developments include easing the processes around the lending of digital assets and partnerships with multiple bank types, the post added.

In July 2020, the OCC gave U.S. national banks the go-ahead to offer crypto custody services.