tl;dr
Anchorage Digital has obtained a BitLicense in New York, allowing it to cater to institutional clients in the financial hub. The company plans to offer secure and cost-efficient trading from early next year. Acquiring a BitLicense is a lengthy and expensive process, limiting the number of approved f...
Anchorage Digital has secured a BitLicense in New York, enabling the company to serve institutions in the world's financial capital. "Secure and cost-efficient trading" is set to be on offer from early next year, it said in an announcement on Monday. Companies have said that acquiring a BitLicense is both time consuming and expensive, with just a handful of firms getting the green light from regulators. New York residents and businesses that wish to buy and sell crypto can only transact with platforms that have a BitLicense. Critics claim this stifles innovation and disproportionately affects startups.
Anchorage Digital's CEO and co-founder, Nathan McCauley, said this is "a major step forward" for his company—and vowed to continue cooperating with the New York State Department of Financial Services (NYDFS.) "Bringing regulated and efficient crypto trading to clients based in New York marks the latest in our journey to build the best regulatory and technical stack for institutions in crypto," he added.
All of this comes amid seemingly insatiable demand for Bitcoin, and exchange-traded funds tracking its spot price, from investment advisors and institutional asset managers. Anchorage Digital says it offers an agency trading desk that's targeted toward this end of the market, meaning NY-based institutions can access "safe, regulated crypto trading with competitive pricing."
BitLicenses have opened the door to other products of late. Ripple's RLUSD stablecoin, which aims to challenge the likes of Tether and Circle by offering digital assets pegged on a 1:1 basis with the U.S. dollar, is going live today. RLUSD will be regulated by the NYDFS, in essence meaning that it will now be subject to New York banking laws.
Anticipation for this stablecoin's rollout has helped XRP, a token launched by the co-founders of Ripple Labs, accelerate in recent days. It's trading at $2.67 at the time of writing, up 14% over the past 24 hours—building upon a rally that began when Donald Trump was re-elected president. His pro-crypto policies include sweeping changes at the Securities and Exchange Commission, which has been engaged in a long-running legal fight with Ripple Labs. Hopes have also been raised that a more relaxed regulatory atmosphere in the Trump administration could pave the way for ETFs that offer exposure to XRP.