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