Anchorage Digital Bank is the first federally chartered digital asset bank
- Anchorage Digital Bank received the OCC's first charter for a crypto bank.
- The license will enable Anchorage to act as a custodian for other traditional banks that want to offer crypto.
The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency granted conditional approval to Anchorage Digital Bank yesterday for a national trust charter. That would make the crypto bank and custodian the first with a national charter in the U.S.
“This is a major milestone, not only for us as an organization, but also for the crypto industry and the wider financial world. Crypto deserves a bank, and we are immensely proud of being approved as the one to set the standard,” wrote the company’s founders, Diogo Mónica and Nathan McCauley, in a post on Medium.
2020 was a watershed year for the uptake in digital assets. Beyond the bull market bitcoin has enjoyed, firms like PayPal and Revolut launched crypto trading, paving the way for digital assets to make it into the mainstream. Popular tools like Square’s Cash App continue to grow their footprint in crypto. Coinbase’s debit card will help users spend crypto like fiat anywhere Visa is accepted. Grayscale continues to scale its digital assets.
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