Anchorage obtains federal license to operate as crypto bank

The US Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has granted conditional approval to crypto custodian Anchorage to launch the country’s first federally chartered digital asset bank.

In a Jan. 13, 2021 statement, OCC said the company received the National Banking Charter of Confidence, which allows it to establish Anchorage Digital Bank, after a thorough review of its operations.

With the approval, Anchorage will now be required to comply with OCC capital and liquidity requirements and certain risk management procedures. The company has signed an agreement with the banking regulator to this effect.

“By bringing this candidate into the federal banking system, the bank and industry will benefit from the OCC’s vast experience and expertise in oversight,” said the regulator, a unit of the US Treasury Department. .

“At the same time, the Anchorage approval demonstrates that the national bank charters provided under the National Bank Act are broad and flexible enough to accommodate evolving approaches to financial services in the 21st century,” said he added.

Founded in 2017 by Nathan McCauley and Diogo Mónica, Anchorage provides crypto-custody and trading services to institutional investors. The company is said to handle around $ 100 billion in transactions per year.

Anchorage filed for a national banking charter last year, hoping, among other things, to make it easier for conventional banks to offer crypto services through what it calls under-custody with the company.

In a blog post on Wednesday, McCauley and Mónica detailed:

Having a national banking charter puts Anchorage Digital Bank firmly on the same regulatory footing as other national banks in the country. Since our founding, we’ve been repeatedly credited with blurring the lines between crypto and traditional finance. Today, we are happy to see that those lines are starting to fade.

Anchorage becomes the first cryptocurrency entity to receive a federal charter. However, last year both Kraken and Avanti were licensed to operate as digital asset banks by the state of Wyoming. The state charter allows the duo to become national, but there are limits.

The Anchorage Banking Charter is hailed as a significant development in the growth of the crypto industry in the U.S. Under Acting Controller Brian Brooks, the OCC has shown progress in building the nascent industry. Last year, the regulator allowed banks to use stablecoins and public blockchains for settlement. The OCC has also given the green light to US banks to hold stable currency reserves for issuers.

What do you think of Anchorage’s national banking charter? Let us know in the comments section below.

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