Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Anchorage Digital has launched its venture unit to invest in early-stage onchain protocols.
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The crypto unicorn will also offer strategic support to help new protocols within the ecosystem succeed.
Anchorage Digital Launches Anchorage Digital Ventures
Anchorage Digital, one of the leading cryptocurrency custodians, has announced the launch of its venture capital unit to support early-stage protocol teams. The company, which was last valued at over $3 billion in its 2021 Series D round, revealed that Anchorage Digital Ventures will provide capital and strategic support to founding teams building onchain infrastructure.
The crypto custody firm added that the venture arm will also help protocols launch “institutional-ready from day one,” while providing them with strategic support.
Anchorage Digital has been around since 2017 and has grown to become one of the leading crypto custodians, primarily serving institutions within the crypto space. It is not the only crypto company with a venture arm, with Coinbase and Circle also launching venture units to help startups grow and boost crypto adoption.
While commenting on this launch, Nathan McCauley, co-founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital, stated that,
"Getting a protocol to market is riddled with challenges, and our Ventures program is built to clear the path forward so they can navigate with confidence. The protocols launching today will define how value moves through the global economy tomorrow."
According to Anchorage, the new venture arm is particularly interested in teams working on Bitcoin DeFi, real-world assets, decentralized identity, and other primitives with the potential to become foundational infrastructure. Anchorage Digital Ventures will also focus on projects solving pain points for institutional adoption.
In addition to funding, protocols will also gain one-on-one guidance with Anchorage’s product, engineering, and go-to-market staff, and access to a structured process for selecting market makers.
Anchorage Digital will also help startups with liquidity strategies and provide pathways to institutional adoption. It will also ensure these projects are integrated with Anchorage to make them available to major clients.
