Crypto custodian Anchorage Digital is expanding its services to include custody and staking support for Solana-based tokens.
Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., is expanding its offerings with custody and staking support for the Solana ecosystem. They announced in an August 6 announcement that they will now support Solana-based tokens in the SPL standard in addition to its existing services for Solana’s (SOL) native token.
Nathan McCauley, co-founder of Anchorage Digital, emphasized that the decision was driven by increasing institutional demand for “safe and secure access to leading networks like Solana.”
Founded in 2017 by Nathan McCauley, Diogo Monica, and Boaz Avital, Anchorage Digital Bank is a crypto custodian that secured backing from investors such as Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, and Oaktree Capital Management. In early 2022, the custodian raised $80 million in a Series C funding round led by a16z.
More Solana-based tokens for institutions
Anchorage Digital’s latest service expansion aims to “meet rising institutional demand” for access to the Solana ecosystem. They initially added support for SOL custody in 2022 and staking in 2023.
The SPL standard allows startups on the Solana network to issue their own tokens that can be integrated into various scenarios on the network. These include decentralized applications, tokenization, payments, and governance. Similar to Ethereum’s ERC-20 and TRON’s TRC-20 standards, the SPL standard enhances the usability of protocols on the Solana network.