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24 January 2020
San Francisco
Reporter Maddie Saghir

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Anchorage makes first acquisition alongside new trading platform launch

Anchorage, a San Francisco-based cryptocurrency custodian, has launched a new crypto-brokerage service for institutional investors, Anchorage Trading, and has also made its first acquisition.

Anchorage was founded in 2017 to meet the ‘growing need’ for institutional custody that promises to offer investors a venue where they can safely hold and use digital assets.

It has now acquired the technology and team of Merkle Data, a provider of risk and data solutions for crypto institutions.

Merkle Data, according to Anchorage Trading, has earned a reputation for deep knowledge of crypto markets, ‘unparalleled assessment’ of crypto liquidity and ‘rigorous asset pricing’.

Commenting on the partnership, Merkle Data’s CEO Louis Baudoin said: “We are joining forces to further our shared mission of serving institutional crypto investors and strengthening the crypto financial system.”

“For the past 18 months, Merkle Data has been building the most advanced risk and data solution on the market, while Anchorage has built the most advanced and user-friendly custody solution. We’ve long admired Anchorage’s team and product, and we couldn’t be more proud to be joining them,” Baudoin added.

Meanwhile, Anchorage’s new trading service, Anchorage Trading, is set to allow its clients to buy and sell digital assets directly from custody.

New assets will be continuously added to the platform going forward, Anchorage revealed, including by client request.

Anchorage has observed that institutional investors want to buy assets directly into custody, and sell assets directly from custody ‘without the pains of dealing with multiple venues or moving assets between third-party addresses’.

According to Anchorage, its new trading service enables its clients to do exactly that and offers efficient execution across multiple venues and routing orders to get clients the ‘optimal’ price.

Discussing the digital asset markets, P. Bart Stephens, co-founder and managing partner of Blockchain Capital, said: “As active participants in the digital asset markets, we derive great value from being able to trade from our custodian’s integrated brokerage platform — an ability that Anchorage uniquely offers.”

Stephens added: “Trading directly from custody has been a critical need of institutional crypto investors for years. Anchorage gives us a level of safety, trust, and ease of use that streamlines the current brokerage/custody workflow. This allows us to both secure our digital assets and trade with confidence.”

Additionally, Anchorage identified that trading fee structure is something that is equally as important to its clients and would like a transparent fee structure that enables them to see whether they’re getting a good deal or not.

In turn, Anchorage Trading charges fees as an agent rather than a principal and charges a transparent per-trade commission starting at 10 basis points.

As well as this, Anchorage noted, its new trading service will not pocket an undisclosed spread above the seller’s price.


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