KKR Leads Anchorage Series D Raise at $3B valuation
Private equity firm KKR to lead the Anchorage Series D investment round, signaling growing interest in digital asset custody.
San Francisco, home of Anchorage; Source: Shutterstock
key takeaways
- Anchorage is a major player in digital asset custody, and now on the radar of major Wall Street firms
- KKR’s total assets under management reached $459 billion in Q3, 2021
Private equity firm KKR & Co is set to lead an investment round into digital asset bank Anchorage, which would value the bank at $3 billion, The Information reports.
This move by KKR continues the firm’s interest in digital assets. In September, Blockworks reported that KKR has invested as a limited partner in ParaFi Capital’s flagship fund. ParaFi manages about $1 billion and focuses on decentralized finance and blockchain technology. Recently, the company has been making moves to launch a $200 million growth fund.
ParaFi’s founder Ben Forman was once KKR’s research head, and the firms are said to maintain close ties.
Anchorage has attracted significant institutional interest since its inception. Earlier this year Singapore’s GIC, one of its sovereign wealth funds that’s a low-risk, blue-chip investor, closed an $80 million round into the bank, Blockworks reported. Within Asia, GIC is considered to be a very conservative investor looking for infrastructure plays, whereas its cousin, Singapore’s Temasek, is compared to Masayoshi Son’s Softbank preferring big bold bets.
The Information also reported that Fireblocks, a custodian, is in the process of raising a round with a valuation of $8 billion.
To date, Anchorage has raised $137 million over four funding rounds, according to Crunchbase Pro. The regulated custody of digital assets remains a significant barrier to mainstream adoption. In the US, major baking regulators FDIC, Federal Reserve and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency have been exploring how best to coordinate supervision of banks that want to provide custody services. Previously, the OCC took proactive steps to establish a “crypto bank charter” with Anchorage and Paxos two prominent recipients earlier this year.
Anchorage PR representatives, reached by Blockworks, declined to comment.
This story was updated on November 18, at 11:09 am ET.
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