Highlight:
- Anchorage is making it safe and accessible for institutions to participate in the rapidly developing digital asset space.
- Anchorage Digital intends to utilize the funds to develop its infrastructure solutions, majorly for global financial firms and fintech innovators.
Anchorage Digital, a San Francisco-based firm offering custody, trading, and financing services, as well as staking and governance, announced that it has raised USD 350 million in its latest funding round led by global investment firm KKR and amp; Co Inc.
Why it matters
As institutions plan to invest more and more in crypto, companies like Anchorage are becoming more critical. Anchorage is a regulated platform that provides both prime services such as custody, lending, and trading, as well as infrastructure, which can be used by companies to build cryptocurrency products.
Details of investors
Investors who participated in the investment round included Goldman Sachs, Alameda Research, Andreessen Horowitz, Apollo credit funds, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, Blockchain Capital, Delta Blockchain Fund, Elad Gil, GIC, GoldenTree Asset Management, Innovius Capital, Kraken, Lux Capital, PayPal Ventures, Senator Investment Group, Standard Investments, Thoma Bravo, and Wellington Management.
This round of financing puts Anchorage’s valuation at over USD 3 billion.
Anchorage was the first crypto-native firm to receive a banking charter from the Office of the Comptroller (OCC) in January 2021. It is making it safe and accessible for institutions to participate in the rapidly developing digital asset space. Making a start as a custodian, it has built a robust suite of services such as staking, secure trading, governance, and financing.
Anchorage Digital intends to utilize the latest funding to develop its infrastructure solutions, majorly for global financial firms and fintech innovators. The funding will also be utilized to boost and simplify clients’ engagement with the latest crypto innovation. It also plans to expand its team size to develop more product offerings and increase its client base.
KKR is funding Anchorage via its Next Generation Technology Growth Fund II, a fund committed to the growth of equity investment opportunities in the technology space. This will be KKR’s first direct equity investment in a digital asset firm.
Anchorage Series D funding follows a dynamic year of development. Following are some of the significant milestones:
- Receiving a federal banking charter from the OCC
- Business growth more than 800% for each of the past two years
- Announcement of USD 800 million Series C round led by GIC and comprised Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, Lux Capital, and Indico
- Developing headcount by about 175% to date in 2021
- Enabling Visa’s purchase of one of the most popular series of NFTs, Cryptopunk #7610
Expert take
Diogo Mónica, Co-Founder and President of Anchorage, said, “As more and more institutions look to add crypto services into their offerings, we find ourselves at an inflection point.”
He added, “This funding positions Anchorage Digital to meet the unprecedented institutional demand for this rapidly evolving market. We’re grateful that KKR and this wider group of investors shares our vision to expand regulated institutional access to digital assets.”
Ben Pederson, Tech Investor/Director at KKR, said, “As a pioneer in enabling institutional investors to access digital assets, Anchorage has built a best in class, institutional grade digital asset platform that combines the best practices of both modern security and usability.”
He added, “We are thrilled to lead this Series D round and work with Diogo, Nathan and their talented team as they continue to support the institutional adoption of digital assets through their differentiated, regulated and integrated suite of solutions.”
Oli Harris, Head of North America Digital Assets at Goldman Sachs, said, “We are certain Anchorage will be a crucial part of the digital asset infrastructure, and we are excited to be an investor.”
