Exclusive: Crypto Custodian Anchorage Digital Lays Off 17% Staff

Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered U.S. digital-asset bank, has cut 17% of jobs, CEO Nathan McCauley told employees this week, according to people familiar with the matter.

Anchorage, which provides crypto custody and issues stablecoins, including Tether’s new U.S. stablecoin USAT and Western Union’s USDPT, made the layoffs as the crypto market has been in a year-long slump. It had 400 employees around the globe, according to a congressional testimony by McCauley last February. Anchorage Digital didn’t respond to requests for comment.

In the past month, Bitcoin jumped 9% to trade at above $84,000, but it still hasn’t recovered to its peak level of $126,000 last October. Coinbase announced a job cut of 14% in May, while Robinhood cut 10% of staff in June.

Anchorage was the first crypto firm to gain a national trust charter under the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in 2021, which positioned it to become a major crypto custodian. Under the Trump administration, more crypto firms, such as Circle, Coinbase and BitGo, have obtained the same charters. One of the expected crypto IPO candidates, Anchorage raised a $100 million strategic investment from Tether this year, valuing it at $4.2 billion. It also announced its first-ever employee tender offer concurrently.