Anchorage, a company providing crypto custody services for
institutional investors, has just raised $40 million in a Series B
funding round.
In an announcement Wednesday, the firm said the round was led by
Blockchain Capital, with Visa Inc. and existing investors such as
Andreessen Horowitz also participating. Anchorage has now raised $57
million in total funding since 2017.
Diogo Monica, Anchorage co-founder and president, said:
“Our mission at Anchorage is to advance institutional
participation in the digital asset class, and this funding will improve
our ability to do precisely that. To have the support of pioneering
organizations like Visa and Blockchain Capital is a validation of
Anchorage’s vision for the emerging economy of digital assets.”
The new investment will be used to build out its service, with
Anchorage planning to offer support for “all digital assets,” as well as
to integrate its offerings with other financial services firms and
boost auditing and compliance.
“This investment is consistent with Visa’s global strategy to partner
with and invest in emerging fintech companies,” said Terry Angelos, SVP
and global head of fintech at Visa. “We’re pleased to add Anchorage to
our growing investment portfolio.”
Anchorage has been designed and built for the next generation of
crypto assets. Its custody solution, something of a darling among
Silicon Valley types, had been included in the Libra Association – an
entity founded by Facebook to manage and develop its recently unveiled cryptocurrency project.
Old-style cold storage will not meet the requirements of institutions
dealing in crypto the future, according to Monica. He said users want
to be able to make voting decisions and governance decisions in various
protocols like Maker and Tezos, for example.
“They want to help the protocol succeed; they can’t do that if their
keys are just buried in the backyard,” he told CoinDesk in an interview
earlier this year.
Speaking to why Blockchain Capital took part in the round, Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner, said:
“We believe Anchorage is the safest place to hold digital
assets, having modernized crypto custody beyond physical cold storage
with advanced security engineering. We are leading this investment
because we believe Anchorage will have a transformative impact on the
financial world.”
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