Anchorage Digital, a Federally Chartered Digital Asset Bank in the U.S., Lays Off 17% of Staff
Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered digital asset bank in the U.S., has laid off 17% of its staff. CEO Nathan McCauley informed employees this week, and sources say the company has not responded to requests for comment.
According to McCauley's congressional testimony in February, the company has approximately 400 global employees, so if that number has not changed, about 68 positions are affected by this round of layoffs. After receiving a $100 million strategic equity investment from Tether in February, the company was valued at $4.2 billion and is still considered a candidate for a crypto listing.
Anchorage provides crypto custody services and participates in the issuance of stablecoins, including Tether's USAT for the U.S. market and Western Union's USDPT. Tether stated that investment considerations include custody, staking, governance, settlement, and stablecoin issuance, as well as the collaboration on banking and compliance for USAT.
The layoffs occur against the backdrop of a crypto market that has been sluggish for about a year. Bitcoin has risen 9% in the past month to above $84,000, briefly reaching $87,000 on Friday, but still below last October's high of about $126,000.
In 2021, the company became the first crypto institution to obtain a national trust charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. During this U.S. administration, companies like Circle, Coinbase, and BitGo have also obtained similar licenses, diluting the barriers to entry for custody and stablecoin issuance.
This is a cost-cutting measure rather than driven by a single client loss. The sellers are human resources, while the buyers are capital still betting on compliant stablecoins and institutional custody. Tether's $100 million investment did not prevent the layoffs. Coinbase laid off 14% of its staff in May, and Robinhood laid off 10% in June, with cost pressures extending from trading platforms to licensed custodians. Beneficiaries are competitors who can still secure issuance and custody shares, while mid-sized licensed institutions that rely on trading volume and custody scale to cover fixed compliance costs are under pressure.
The company did not disclose whether the laid-off teams or bank subsidiaries were affected, nor did it announce the latest total number of employees. In March 2023, it had already cut about 20% of positions while shifting to institutional custody.
Source: Public Information
ABAB AI Insight
Anchorage was founded by Nathan McCauley and Diogo Monica, and obtained a national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in January 2021, aiming to exchange the bank charter for institutional custody shares rather than engaging in retail trading. In April 2022, the company received a consent order from the OCC due to insufficient internal controls related to the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering, with compliance costs being written into operational constraints by regulators. In March 2023, during a market downturn, it had already laid off about 20%, and this 17% is the second public layoff on the same contraction curve.
Tether invested $100 million in strategic equity on February 5, anchoring the valuation at $4.2 billion, with the money buying access to U.S. licensed issuance channels and custody settlements, rather than expanding the workforce. USAT is issued by Anchorage, and Western Union's USDPT is also based on the same banking and compliance infrastructure, indicating that capital flows from stablecoin issuers to license holders, while human resources are being cut, showing that investment terms prioritize maintaining issuance and custody capacity over headcount.
A comparable case is Coinbase: it laid off about 20% of its staff in January 2023 and another 14% in May, while still advancing its OCC license and institutional business. Anchorage is now in a defensive phase for its market share after the diffusion of licenses, no longer the only federal trust bank in 2021, and with Circle and BitGo obtaining similar licenses, custody fee rates can no longer rely on scarcity for support.
Structurally, this represents a shift in pricing power. The national trust charter has transitioned from a monopoly to multiple applicants, and the premium for custody and stablecoin issuance has shifted from the license itself to distribution and reserve parties. Tether and Western Union control the issuance brand and user access, while Anchorage provides the compliance shell, meaning costs can only be covered by reducing staff rather than raising prices, allowing financing to occur simultaneously with layoffs.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
When licenses are scarce, sell access; when licenses diffuse, sell costs.
Financing secures channels, layoffs secure profits; both can coexist.
Distributors set prices, infrastructure providers reduce staff.