Anchorage Digital Financial institution, a number one cryptocurrency custody agency backed by Wall Avenue giants, is being investigated by a monetary crimes unit inside the U.S. Division of Homeland Safety, in line with sources accustomed to the matter.
The investigation, carried out by the division’s El Dorado Activity Pressure, has reached out to former Anchorage workers in latest weeks to collect details about the corporate’s inner practices and compliance protocols. The character and scope of the investigation has not been formally disclosed, however the job pressure is understood for its efforts to fight cross-border cash laundering and monetary crimes by preventive investigations.
Anchorage Digital, a federally chartered crypto financial institution, is backed by monetary companies together with Goldman Sachs, Andreessen Horowitz, KKR, and Wellington Administration. The corporate offers companies comparable to digital asset custody and buying and selling infrastructure for establishments and governments. Simply final week, BlackRock chosen Anchorage as a custodian for its crypto-related exchange-traded merchandise.
The agency has confronted scrutiny earlier than. In April 2022, the Workplace of the Comptroller of the Foreign money (OCC) issued a consent order requiring Anchorage to reinforce its anti-money laundering controls and enhance buyer due diligence. On the time, the OCC mentioned Anchorage violated the Financial institution Secrecy Act and should repair gaps in its compliance methods. The corporate responded by committing to strengthening its procedures and stays below the consent order as we speak.
The newest federal investigation comes at a politically charged time for the crypto business, with Anchorage positioning itself in a key place in Washington and strengthening ties with officers loyal to President Donald Trump, who has vowed to make the U.S. the “crypto capital of the world.” CEO Nathan McCauley has publicly championed Trump’s digital asset agenda and brought a number one function in discussions round “debanking,” the follow of economic establishments slicing off companies to crypto clients.
In February, McCauley testified earlier than the Senate Banking Committee about debanking practices. Extra not too long ago, he attended a White Home summit on digital belongings and shared a photograph with Bo Hines, govt director of the President’s Council of Advisors on Digital Property, saying, “Crypto is in good arms.”
The agency has sought to bolster its credibility by hiring skilled regulatory and monetary leaders. Anchorage’s board presently contains former Goldman Sachs govt Connie Shoemaker and Julie Williams, who was the OCC’s basic counsel in the course of the 2008 monetary disaster. The agency additionally not too long ago noticed a authorized management shakeup, with TuongVy Le, a former SEC crypto investigator, stepping down as basic counsel.
Based in 2017 by McCauley and Diogo Mónica, Anchorage was final valued at $3 billion in its 2021 fundraising spherical. That very same 12 months, below then-OCC chairman Brian Brooks, Anchorage grew to become the primary and nonetheless solely crypto agency to obtain a nationwide financial institution constitution from the federal regulator.
*This isn’t funding recommendation.
