Anchorage Digital has reportedly cut 17% of its workforce, according to The Information. If the crypto bank still employed roughly 400 people, as CEO Nathan McCauley told Congress, the reduction would amount to nearly 68 positions. The contrast is striking: Anchorage was valued at $4.2 billion this year and received a $100 million investment from Tether, while continuing to expand its role in issuing regulated stablecoins in the United States.
Crypto: Anchorage cuts roughly 68 positions
Nathan McCauley reportedly informed employees about the job cuts this week. Anchorage Digital has not yet issued a statement confirming the move and had not responded to requests for comment relayed on Thursday.
The 68-position figure therefore remains an estimate. McCauley said in February that Anchorage had roughly 400 employees worldwide. A 17% reduction on that basis equals 68 people, provided headcount has not changed significantly since then.
The cuts come as digital-asset banks gain ground in the United States. BrefCrypto recently reported that Revolut had received initial approval to establish its own US bank, including crypto custody and stablecoin-related services.
Anchorage has a head start. Its bank obtained a federal OCC charter in 2021 and now provides institutions with custody, trading, staking, settlement and stablecoin issuance services.
This is not a small crypto company scaling back.
It is one of the players most deeply integrated into the US banking system.
Tether had just invested $100 million
The timing makes the cuts even more notable. In February, Tether invested $100 million in Anchorage Digital. The deal valued the company at $4.2 billion and included an offer allowing some long-standing employees to sell part of their shares.
In its official announcement, Anchorage described its financial position as strong and said it intended to continue investing aggressively in its growth.
Tether did more than take a stake in the company. Anchorage Digital Bank issues USA₮, the group’s US stablecoin, designed to operate within the US federal regulatory framework.
The relationship puts Anchorage at the center of a sector that has become strategically important. Tether already manages tens of billions of dollars in USDT across multiple blockchains, while its new US product relies on an architecture much closer to traditional banking.
Anchorage also issues or supports several other tokenized dollars, including Ethena’s USDtb, OSL’s USDGO and Western Union’s upcoming USDPT.
The layoffs therefore do not look like a retreat from crypto.
They come as the company expands into its most institutional lines of business.
The crypto bank may be choosing its priorities
The Information placed the workforce reductions in the context of a crypto market that has weakened over roughly the past year. Bitcoin recovered above $87,000 in early October, but remains well below its all-time high reached last year.
It is impossible to say that Anchorage is cutting jobs solely because of BTC’s price. The company itself has not disclosed the detailed reason for the reductions.
Its business is changing particularly quickly.
Institutional custody remains important, but stablecoins are becoming a new battleground for banks. Standard Chartered is already distributing a regulated stablecoin in Hong Kong, while US banks, fintech companies and payment networks prepare their own tokenized dollars.
Anchorage wants to become the infrastructure behind these players.
That strategy requires different capabilities: banking compliance, reserve management, blockchain interoperability, institutional payments and regulated token issuance. A company-wide workforce reduction can therefore coexist with targeted hiring. Anchorage’s careers page still lists positions in stablecoins, trading, derivatives and operations.
The group had already reduced its workforce by 20% in 2023. At the time, 75 jobs were eliminated amid crypto-market volatility, macroeconomic difficulties and regulatory uncertainty.
Three years later, the situation is markedly different. Anchorage is worth $4.2 billion, Tether has put $100 million on the table, and regulated stablecoins are entering US finance.
The 17% reduction therefore says less about Anchorage’s collapse than it does about a more interesting contradiction: institutional crypto finance is growing, without guaranteeing that the companies building it need to expand their workforces at the same pace.
