Anchorage

Basics

• Cryptocurrency custody service
• Being used by crypto funds like Andreessen’s a16z crypto, Paradigm and Electric Capital. Also used by Braintrust (10-2021).

Projects

Wrapped Tokens

• From Crypto Briefing (21-10-2020):

"WZEC is the result of a partnership between two crypto firms, Anchorage and Tokensoft. Tokensoft will be in charge of the technical development of the system that handles the token, while Anchorage will be responsible for the custody of WZEC’s crypto holdings."

• Some have critiqued (23-10-2020) the usefulness of wrapped Zcash, due to it losing its privacy values, which is its number one value proposition:

"Tokensoft and Anchorage are claiming that wrapping Zcash will actually make the “privacy coin” more palatable to regulators because in order to wrap the asset, customers need to complete KYC and WZEC adheres to the ERC-1404 standard which has “compliance functions” baked in. Though, this kind of defeats the entire purpose of a privacy coin, right? Well, Anchorage argues that the “goal with zcash was never to shield from authorities, regulators or your financial providers” and “the shielding of zcash came as a response to the fact that bitcoin is pseudonymous. So who you’re shielding from is the public at large and the internet at large.” I think this is a weak argument because the killer use-case for any privacy coin is being able to do transactions privately that you otherwise wouldn’t be able to do due to laws and regulations. In saying that, there have been fears lately that ZEC will be delisted from centralized exchanges because of its privacy features so maybe WZEC will find a home on Ethereum within the decentralized exchange space."

Team, Funding, partners

Team

• Diogo Mónica; co-founder & President
• Nathan McCauley; co-founder & CEO
• Katie Biber; General Counsel
• Chris Dixon; on the board (he is a a16z crypto leader)

Funding

• Had investment from bankrupt Alameda Research/FTX, which came out (11-11-2022) during the FTX crash. This could mean fall-out risk since this $20M worth of equity will likely be sold due to bankruptcy.
• $17 million Series A raised last year (2018) led by Andreessen Horowitz and joined by Khosla Ventures, #Angels, Max Levchin, Elad Gil, Mark McCombe of Blackrock and AngelList’s Naval Ravikant. Update: "Visa and Andreessen Horowitz (both also nodes for Libra) are funding a big round for Anchorage’s omnimetric blockchain security system. Instead of using passwords that can be stolen, Anchorage requires cryptocurrency withdrawals to be approved by a client’s other employees. Then the company uses both human and AI review of biometrics and more to validate transactions before they’re executed, while offering end-to-end insurance coverage. This new-age approach to cryptocurrency protection has attracted a $40 million Series B for Anchorage, led by Blockchain Capital and joined by Visa and Andreessen Horowitz. The round adds to Anchorage’s $17 million Series A that Andreessen led just six months ago, demonstrating extraordinary momentum for the security startup."
• Other investers include: Polychain Capital and SciFi VC
• Naval Ravikant; advisor & investor
• Elad Gil; advisor & investor
• Kevin Warsh; advisor (Former Governor of the U.S. Federal Reserve)
• From CoinDesk (25-2-2021):

"Raised an $80 million Series C funding round, led by GIC, Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund. Also participating in the round were Andreessen Horowitz (a16z), Blockchain Capital, Lux and Indico."

Partners

• Anchorage is a consortium member of Facebook's Libra and therefor a possible node of the coin's network.
• Is also a member of the Celo Alliance, which is a Libra's competitor.
• Founding member of the Crypto Rating Council (9-2019).
• It's founder is part of HOLDpac's first donors (23-3-2020).
• Has a partnership with Oasis Network (10-9-2020).
• Used to sit (22-9-2020) on the board of the Blockchain Association but left when a seat held by a representative of Anchorage left that company.