Anchorage Digital has reportedly cut 17% of its workforce after securing a $100 million Tether investment earlier this year.
Summary
- CEO Nathan McCauley reportedly informed employees of the workforce reduction this week.
- A 17% cut would equal about 68 jobs if February’s headcount remained unchanged.
- Tether announced its $100 million strategic equity investment in Anchorage on Feb. 5.
- Recent expansions include cross-chain stablecoin infrastructure and custody support for tokenized uranium.
The Information reported on Oct. 2, citing people familiar with the matter, that McCauley had told employees about the layoffs during the week. The report placed the reduction against a prolonged downturn in crypto markets.
Anchorage Digital’s reported cuts could affect about 68 jobs
In congressional testimony in February, McCauley put Anchorage’s global workforce at approximately 400 employees. Applying the reported 17% reduction to that figure would amount to about 68 positions, provided the company’s headcount had stayed near the same level.
The February figure covers employees globally, so the calculation represents a possible company-wide reduction rather than a confirmed number of U.S. job losses.
According to the supplied report, Anchorage received a $4.2 billion valuation earlier this year. The workforce reduction follows both that valuation and fresh investment from Tether, which already works with Anchorage through its U.S.-focused stablecoin, USAT.
The Information cited weak crypto markets as the backdrop to the cuts. The supplied account also noted that Bitcoin briefly recovered above $87,000 on Friday but remained below its $126,000 peak from October 2025.
Tether invested $100 million after USAT’s launch
Earlier coverage by crypto.news recorded Anchorage’s $100 million strategic round in its Feb. 7 funding report. Tether Investments had announced the equity transaction two days earlier, describing it as an expansion of the companies’ existing relationship.
In its investment announcement, Tether identified custody, staking, governance, settlement and stablecoin issuance among Anchorage’s services. It also said its experience working with Anchorage’s banking and compliance infrastructure on USAT informed the investment decision.
The transaction gave Tether an equity investment in the company responsible for issuing its new domestic stablecoin. Tether’s announcement identified Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. as USAT’s legal issuer, maintaining a distinction between the bank’s issuance responsibilities and Tether’s support for the product.
USAT entered the market on Jan. 27, according to Tether’s launch announcement. The company described the token as a dollar-backed product designed for the U.S. federal stablecoin framework established under the GENIUS Act.
For American users, Tether’s announcement also set out limits on the token’s protections. It stated that USAT is not legal tender, is not backed or guaranteed by the U.S. government, and does not carry FDIC or SIPC insurance.
Under the launch arrangement, Tether named Cantor Fitzgerald as the reserve custodian and preferred primary dealer. The announcement listed Bybit, Crypto.com, Kraken, OKX and MoonPay among platforms supporting the first phase of the rollout.
September’s LayerZero deal extends stablecoin infrastructure
On Sep. 22, previous coverage detailed Anchorage’s LayerZero stablecoin infrastructure partnership, announced the day before. LayerZero said it would provide cross-chain infrastructure for stablecoins issued through Anchorage’s banking platform, with USAT named as the first token to use the arrangement.
According to LayerZero’s announcement, the agreement makes its technology the preferred interoperability layer for eligible Anchorage-issued stablecoins. Anchorage handles regulated issuance, while LayerZero provides infrastructure connecting token deployments across supported networks.
LayerZero’s Omnichain Fungible Token standard allows an issuer to maintain a unified token supply across multiple blockchains. The company says issuers retain control of their contracts, choose the networks they support and configure the security settings for cross-chain messages.
The Sep. 22 report also identified Western Union’s USDPT, OSL Group’s USDGO and Falcon Finance’s fUSD among the stablecoins included in Anchorage’s issuance portfolio. Although LayerZero said its infrastructure supports more than 170 networks, the report distinguished that technical reach from confirmed deployments of each individual stablecoin.
For USAT, Anchorage publishes monthly reserve attestations, according to the same coverage. Its first January report recorded 17.5 million redeemable tokens outstanding and approximately $17.6 million in supporting reserve assets.
Etherlink custody adds assets under U.S. bank supervision
In a separate Sep. 17 report, Anchorage’s Etherlink custody expansion added support for seven assets on the Tezos layer 2 network. Anchorage said institutional clients could hold the tokens through segregated accounts at Anchorage Digital Bank.
The supported assets included xU3O8, wrapped XTZ, stXTZ, USDT, USDC, USDSM and wrapped Ether. According to Anchorage, clients could apply existing custody policies and operational controls rather than establish a separate arrangement for Etherlink holdings.
Among those assets, xU3O8 represents physical uranium through Uranium.io. Anchorage described the addition as a way for institutional investors to hold tokenized commodity exposure within the same custody infrastructure used for other digital assets.
The bank’s U.S. regulatory status dates to January 2021, when the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency approved Anchorage Trust Company’s conversion from a South Dakota trust company into a national trust bank. The OCC said the approval included an enforceable operating agreement covering capital, liquidity, and risk management requirements.
In its February 2026 records, the OCC listed the termination of Anchorage Digital Bank’s original January 2021 operating agreement.
