US OCC drops consent order against Anchorage Digital amid regulatory shift

A federal banking regulatory agency has dropped its consent order against Anchorage Digital.

In 2022, under the Biden administration, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency released that consent order against the national bank over concerns about its anti-money laundering program and know your customer (or KYC) provisions.

On Thursday, the OCC said “that the safety and soundness of the Bank and its compliance with laws and regulations does not require the continued existence of the Order,” according to the filing.

Over the past year under the Trump administration, regulatory agencies, including the OCC, have shifted their stance toward crypto. The Federal Reserve has since withdrawn guidance that previously discouraged banks from participating in crypto. The central bank has also, along with the OCC, released a joint statement last month setting out how existing rules apply to banks holding crypto on customers’ behalf.

Anchorage Digital is the first and only federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., which its CEO Nathan McCauley said has given it a “nearly five-year head start in becoming the best.”

“In the 1,681 days that have since passed, we have built what has become the world’s most regulated digital asset bank, investing immense resources into products and people who would come to define the industry standard for crypto compliance,” McCauley said in a statement on Thursday. “In that time, we received—and have now resolved—feedback from regulators as we set the standard for federally-chartered custody of digital assets.”

Over the past few months, other crypto firms have applied for a national trust charter, including Paxos, BitGo, Ripple, and Circl,e in the wake of a friendlier presidential administration.

McCauley said he welcomes the competition.

“As we’ve long said, when it comes to crypto, no one bank can go at it alone,” he said on Thursday.