[Anchorage crypto bank adds custody of Solana-based tokens]
Crypto bank Anchorage is adding custody support for tokens on the Solana blockchain, CEO Nathan McCauley told CoinDesk.
The federally chartered custodian will initially allow its clients, including venture capital firms, hedge funds and the protocol’s treasury arms, to deposit small amounts of tokens that adhere to the Solana SPL standard.
Anchorage is adding custody support for Solana-based tokens starting in 2022, and added staking support last year. McCauley said the company chose to wait and complete custodial support for SPL tokens first rather than act prematurely because the chain has experienced some difficulties.
"We are very sensitive to our customers' needs," McCauley said.
In early 2023, many crypto investors attempted to abandon the Solana ecosystem following the FTX collapse, as the incident caused significant collateral and reputational damage. However, the chain’s developers persisted, and users eventually came back to trade, stake, and mint new tokens on memecoin-issuing platforms like Pump.fun, one of cryptocurrency’s profit-making machines.
Although Anchorage is expanding functionality to support SPL assets, it may be a long time before these memecoins receive custodial support. The company currently only accepts a handful of assets, including USDC, HNT, W, PYTH, and MPLX. Anchorage will add additional assets based on client demand and due diligence reviews.
