U.S. Banking Regulator OCC Lifts Enforcement Order From Anchorage Digital

Anchorage Digital has moved out from beneath its U.S. banking regulator’s order that it institute a compliance program to guard in opposition to money-laundering abuses, with the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) asserting the elimination of the cease-and-desist order initially issued in 2022.

“The OCC believes that the safety and soundness of the bank and its compliance with laws and regulations does not require the continued existence of the order,” it mentioned within the termination introduced on Thursday.

Anchorage Digital CEO Nathan McCauley, who has emerged as a high-profile consultant of crypto pursuits in Washington, framed the enforcement motion as regulatory “feedback” in celebrating its elimination.

“We received — and have now resolved — feedback from regulators as we set the standard for federally chartered custody of digital assets,” he mentioned in a Thursday missive on the corporate’s web site, by which he known as Anchorage Digital “the world’s most regulated digital asset bank.”

The OCC and different U.S. banking regulators have, for the reason that begin of President Donald Trump’s second administration, sought to chill out constraints on crypto trade companies. New OCC chief Jonathan Gould, who was sworn in final month, was an company veteran who has additionally labored within the personal sector as chief authorized officer for Bitfury.

Anchorage Digital was the primary crypto financial institution to win a full-fledged banking constitution from the company that regulates nationwide banks, and after it did so, that window had closed for a time because the regulators throughout President Joe Biden’s tenure seen the trade with extra suspicion.

More lately, digital property issuers together with Circle, Ripple and Paxos have once more began making use of to the OCC to begin the bank-charter course of.