Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Anchorage Digital is stepping back from a leading role in the USDG stablecoin consortium as it shifts toward a more neutral stance on stablecoins.
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CEO Nathan McCauley said the company still supports USDG but no longer wants to actively promote one stablecoin as Anchorage expands its white-label issuance business with banks and tech firms.
Anchorage Digital Pulls Back from USDG Consortium
Anchorage Digital, the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States, is taking a less prominent role in the Global Dollar stablecoin (USDG) consortium, according to comments from co-founder and CEO Nathan McCauley.
USDG, which currently has a circulating supply of roughly $3 billion, is issued by Paxos Digital Singapore under the oversight of the Monetary Authority of Singapore. The consortium includes major industry players such as Robinhood, Kraken, Galaxy Digital, OKX, Visa, Worldpay, and Bullish, the parent company of CoinDesk.
Speaking in an interview, McCauley said Anchorage still supports the project but will no longer play as visible a role as before.
“We're still supportive of it, and want to see it succeed, and are still part of the thing. But maybe not as up-front a role as before,” McCauley said.
He added that Anchorage is increasingly positioning itself as neutral in the stablecoin market rather than promoting a specific issuer.
“I think one of the things you're gonna see from us is increased neutrality on the stablecoins,” McCauley said. “It just makes sense to be neutral and not specifically be pushing any one stablecoin.”
The shift comes as Anchorage expands its stablecoin infrastructure business. The custody firm recently said as many as 20 banks and technology companies are exploring stablecoin issuance through Anchorage.
In April, the company announced a partnership with stablecoin issuance platform M0, whose network includes MetaMask and Bridge.
“With us becoming a white-label stablecoin issuer for so many different groups, you start to think about what the incentive structure is, and is everything still aligned?” McCauley added.
