How Anchorage Helps Banks Mint Their Own Stablecoins

Hey. This is Zach here from Stable Dash. We're with Monica, the managing director of Stablecoins at Anchorage Digital. Monica, thank you for sitting down with us today. How has the conference been going? We're at BISO. We're in Mexico City. And I'll say if you can look out right now, it's it's beautiful. I love the vibe of the conference. How's your day been going? Been amazing. Thank you for hosting. StableDash live is sponsored by Agora, built for global institutions moving money at the speed of the Internet.

You can learn more at agora.finance.

We I attended this conference last year, and it was definitely a must come back on my list. So happy to finally be here a year later. What about it made it a must come back? That's a great question. I think this conference last year was around right before Labor Day weekend, and that was when Anchorage was still not official an issuer of stablecoins. And we were we had a lot of irons in the fire on stuff that we were doing at stablecoins. So we were I wanna talk about this, but then I can't. Exactly. Yes.

So we we had a a lot of, like, internal momentum and and just being here and understanding what the what the use case is and potential partners. I think it's here is where a lot of it started. So coming back here close to a year later and now seeing how much the business has grown as Anchorage Digital Bank now being an issuer, having the stablecoin solutions for banks, which is what I manage, it's kind of surreal. And so you have a panel today. What's your panel on?

Stablecoins, brother. We'll see where it goes. Yes. And also kind of surreal again, the the panel is some of the panels are the same, so it's it's good to see, like, a a look back a year later on on everything what we've accomplished. Yeah. Well, hopefully, we'll be talking next year because this is our second year here as well.

I think that's, like, that's it's always great to talk down sit down and talk for the first time, but there is something that's fun to be able to see the journey throughout this year and next, and hopefully five, ten years down the line. Let's rewind a bit. You you mentioned, like, the the feeling of we're sitting on this news. You know, you imagine that, you know, the iron's in the fire. What does it felt like to go from there to now and say, okay.

Now we are a bank, and now we can bring, you know, stablecoin issuance to the larger ecosystem? Yes. That's a that's a great question. I think a lot of it was a prepper preparation and execution.

I think once the genius bill was signed in July of last year, that really put us in lockdown over the summer to understand where are the areas that we wanna play and what are the partnerships that we want to achieve. And then starting into, this conference last year, it was it was kind of, like, hit go. Yeah. But, essentially, since then, we've been, we've announced five stablecoins that we now issue publicly. We have, Tethers, USAT, Athena Labs, USDTV, OSL's USDGO, Falcon Finance, FUSD,

and also Western Union's USDBT. So that's an exciting one. I've I've gotten the chance to top of Malcolm twice now too. Just one awesome guy. If you haven't watched his interviews, go back. You can find him on our YouTube. We had him at Stable Minded, which is our podcast, and we talked with him at a very stable conference. What are those conversations like when you're going in and you're starting to say, hey, guys. You can issue a stablecoin now. What unpack that. How how do those conversations start?

Where do people even need to start thinking about issuance?

Yes. We start with the premise of being genius ready. So with the regulation being passed last last summer and rulemaking being finalized through the end of the year, we find that it's very important to align these new issuances as close as possible to the genius bill. Because once that is completed, we want all these assets to be incorporated to the day to day as as the plan and the and the legal framework really encourages.

So making sure that we follow what are the reserve assets, what are the attestations, cadence. So for example, we publish all our attestations monthly on our website, making sure that, we also provide the right licensing. So Anchorage Digital Bank is the issuer of record. And then we're then work closely with our name partners, which are the brands on distribution.

So they get a lot of say on where they wanna play and where they wanna incorporate, and and that's also very fun to see each stablecoin taking a life of its own in terms of where the geographic

areas and companies that start to use them. Have you always thought about stablecoin issuance like this? I'm thinking back, know, your years in the previous roles. Or has your view on stablecoin issuance evolved? Because I think especially two or three years ago when we saw this narrative start to pick up, there was people on the side of, no, just go use the legacy established stablecoins, and you just need to build on that.

And everyone was, oh, well, if we go issue all these stablecoins, the space is just gonna be more fragmented than than ever. How would you talk to somebody

that is that is thinking through issuance in those realms? And like I said, how how is your thoughts on on it involved? To answer that question is exactly how our own StablePoints team has evolved over the past eighteen months. So when we first started StablePoints team at Anchorage, we really started from the premise of where does Anchorage win. So we are qualified custodian. We have fiat capabilities. We have strong partnerships with protocols and blockchains.

And then we also have this ecosystem of being active in the digital asset space in a secure and regulated way. Our first premise was how do we engage in stablecoins? Do we partner, or do we form kind of networks, partnerships, different types of of elements? And with, you know, coming into March of last year of 2025, seeing the Genius Bill getting a lot of traction. Then we Anchorage Digital had the acquisition of Mountain Protocol, which they were an issuer of a stablecoin.

So bringing that team in house and bringing that expertise and that talent really propelled us to be ready once the bill was was signed in July. So I think it's been a a combination of what does Anchorage does does well from an infrastructure and regulated way, the people that we've hired and incorporated, and then, how we see the vision of stable points right now.

And having regulation in The US has also allowed us to have really smart conversations with international partners as well that are looking to incorporate stable points on their cross border payments. And so when we when we think about the process of saying, okay. I'm bought in. I know I need to issue a stablecoin.

You know, we you've heard in this industry for years that it was touted that, okay. Stablecoins are gonna just disrupt banks, and they're just and this technology is gonna be the one that pulls people away from banks. I I got the opportunity to speak with Luke from MoneyGram the other day, he says, you know, we realized we had to disrupt ourselves. And that really that really stuck with me as saying, okay.

How are bay how has how have banks evolved to think about stablecoins to disrupt their own operations, and in what way are are you seeing that start to come to fruition? Within the stablecoins team, we're focusing on two main verticals. One is the issuance of high quality stablecoins,

and then the second one, which is the stablecoin solutions for banks, which is what I lead. We officially went public with our solution back in February of this year. And, essentially, when we started to see what are the use cases of stablecoins, one of them is cross border Yeah. And cross border with international parties. So we saw an opportunity to see international banks that want to use stablecoins within their own flows and have the direction and autonomy to be able to do those flows themselves.

So bringing, like, the stablecoin sandwich inside

their own operations as if What do what do you mean by inside? If if people were thinking, like, two two different sandwiches. Right? I know people love the Stablecoin sandwich analogy, but that really stuck out where you said, well, we're bringing you know, I imagine now it's like instead of going to Subway, I now just went and bought all the ingredients to to make it in house. Is that a relevant analogy, or what would you mean what would you mean by that happening? Oh, that's a good one. Instead of having

external parties that dictate the Stablecoin sandwich, I think fintechs were amazing in in leading the way in terms of how this looks like. It's allowing banks to, I guess, have the ability to mint and redeem stablecoins natively within their own infrastructure, which is something that Anchorage provides. So if they wanna pick the bread, they can do so themselves. They can also then have a nice bowl or or a sort of place to hold the stablecoin sandwich within Anchorage as a qualified custodian.

So then as they scale their journey on on having more, you know, going from thousands to millions to billions in stablecoins, they have a trusted and regulated counterparty to scale that journey with them. And then, finally, like, we also provide the connectivity with Fiat as well. So instead of having to have, like, three different partners to do something, they can now rely on Anchorage to do all three in one and then pick, their journey.

So we do have in every conversation, we come in with, like, kinda three big use cases that we see in the market. We engage with the with the banks. And usually, they say, well, we want one and two or one and four or actually, there's four use cases. I know how they say it. But then then it becomes highly customizable because of

regulatory framework in each country and also what their pain points are. And and I guess I kinda have two questions. So one I've heard, from your perspective, how relevant in this conversation is the revenue actually generated from these stablecoins to the bank's four operations? We've talked to a few people that have said, hey. No. It's this is five you know, among treasury managers, maybe 5% of them care about this.

They more care about the programmability of this for our internal treasury opera operations and money movement. Is that still a key pillar of the conversation for why issue, or is that just that's icing on the cake and what we really care about is how well can we move this money and how could we program it? On the why issue, it really has to come down to distribution. So if a named partner has

a sticky network and they can benefit from having those dollars on chain and and generating network effects, then definitely that's that's a pathway to go. But we also have conversations where they can use existing stablecoins and test it out. I think, going from a zero to a 100 sometimes may be a little too much. It's, start to incorporate,

the stablecoins flow, get going, start building the use case, and then potentially, you even graduate to building your your own stable point. So if you met somebody here I was just having this conversation actually before our interview, and it was actually with Aaron from Brazil Crypto Report. We're we're noticing sometimes there's this gap. There's the people that come to these conferences, they have these conversations, and they're like, great. I have to approach the board. And they're like, but what do I do next?

How do you maybe work with partners to say, like, hey. We don't have to go zero to a 100. Let's just go zero to one. What is that zero to one step right now? Great. Yeah. I think that this is where we start discussing the, like, four use cases for for stablecoins. So

the first one is treasury management. So the ability to send use stablecoins to be an usurvustor challenger, and, eliminate or reduce trapped capital. So if you're able to send a stablecoin, convert it into fiat, and do third party payments in The US, I think that that's already revolutionary in terms of unlocking working capital. The second one becomes a corporate client inbounds.

We're seeing that especially in many, emerging markets, including LatAm, a lot of the big conglomerates already are exposed to stable points through their cross border payments and just international trade.

So allowing banks to have the infrastructure to accept those stablecoins as as a new source of, for lack of a better word, deposit, that that allows the banks to continue to be very active in the space and also gives these growing companies that are having more access to stablecoins the relief of having a a trusted banking partner to be able to manage those assets. Then the third is the the remittances.

So we're seeing a lot of conversations with large payment processors that already settle against international banks on the fiat side. There's an ability to do that first leg on chain with stablecoins to be able to reduce either prefunding or postfunding contracts and and obligations. For that one, I think that's gonna be more of a six to twelve months activation, but it's great that the conversations are happening. And and back to your original point of, you know, how do you justify the cost?

We like to call this team like Stablecoin Solutions because we come with with new ideas. I think if you start to start to do the reverse and be like how much you're saving, you're always gonna come back in the negative because if you you might be saving on this aspect of the the flow, but you might have to hire a compliance officer, and then the the math never really works out.

How how engaged with with clients and prospects is, like, you have all this net new business that you cannot currently service because you don't have the infrastructure, because you're not part of this flow, this is a way to to build into the future. Yeah. That's definitely an area we haven't got to dive into. Obviously, we speak with a lot of managing directors or founders.

But when you think about compliance teams, product teams, are are they ready to come and start, you know, building on on and with this infrastructure? One area that it feels like it's starting to become my my focus is is non USD stablecoins, and where do they fit into this conversation?

I'm especially thinking of if you're making your sandwich and you're settling with all these different fiat currencies, at what point would it maybe make sense to start issuing your own, you know, maybe GBP or BRL or, you know, Mexican peso. I think we see a, you know, non USD stable point over there. Is that coming onto your radar, or the conversations like right now, hey. Just need to get going USD. That's the focus, and we'll see where non USD go?

Or is that, you know, is that what we're gonna be talking about next year as as this is the next phase? Definitely by this time next year, I think we will have non USD

conversations. What we're seeing today is the Genius Act just provided so much momentum on the USD side and provided a regulated pathway that we want to see all those assets live and get traction. And while we're working with international banks as of today, they're comfortable using USD denominated stable points because they're they already have a lot of exposure to USD. And I think it becomes a a good tool for them to get their sea legs to understand what do I need to do to hold the stable points?

What are the the controls that I need to do? Like, do I need a digital asset custodian? What are the how do I, locate liquidity? What are, you know, ways that we can use this better versus our traditional rails? So we're seeing that USD also becoming a good learning for that ecosystem. But then after, you know, three to four months, these banks start to flip around and say, what if we issue a non USD stable point? What would that take?

I think another point to to focus on too is when we think of non USD stablecoins, there's a yield component to that that exposure to non USD stablecoins and and that, potential yield. And I think maybe they they take in a different form and maybe become more of a yield bearing asset than an actual stablecoin. So more to come, but I think that the the USD part is becoming a good trailblazer in terms of understanding

what does an ecosystem look like that's running on stablecoins. What do you think that ecosystem starts to look like? Kinda big kinda bigger picture question, but, you know, I feel like we're in this kind of, like, this in between phase, you know, where we're we're getting there. Not everybody's on board. People are coming on board. And and we've we've kinda asked this question where does does the final form factor of, you know, this upgraded global system? Does it start to feel very similar to ours?

Is it going to feel, you know, different? Is it kinda gonna be a hybrid of both? I think to answer that question, I I'll preview your next question, which is how how did I get into stablecoins to begin with?

I started my my interest in blockchain when I was an attorney ten years ago. I was doing a lot of signature pages by hand and just started to think there must be a technology that's gonna simplify these transactions of trust. I started reading about blockchain, the technology, and said there could be something here.

Then I went to investment banking, and I was there when Bitcoin went to 20 k and back down around 20 '17 and just realizing, like, the the gap between some of the analysts being like, this is something, and the and the five things are financed and some of the more senior folks saying, this is nothing. So that made me go into my own journey of understanding what is blockchain and what can it do, and essentially codifies transactions of trust, which are done by bankers and lawyers.

So me as a professional, I started to That was like the light bulb. Yes. Go go keep into into. So my origin story is about reducing inefficiencies and making transactions a little bit easier rather than pushing paper. So then when stablecoins became more more of a thing after, let's say, the beginning of twenty twenty five, or at least a thing to me, it resonated a lot because it kinda had the same sort of topics. Right? It's a very you're moving money. It's very regulated. It's very high stakes.

It's a fintech with a capital f, meaning like the financial part, the compliance, the legal part is more important than even the tech to a certain degree. So I gravitated to that space because it had that complexity and then also the overarching ethos that I believe in of simplifying transactions and and transactions of trust specifically.

So fast forward into where I see stablecoins going forward, I think it has to do with how do we I don't think we we've even imagined it yet, but just the the ability to send assets quicker, more liquid, and having also

brands associated with those assets, I think it'll be pretty interesting to see where we go. Awesome. Well, I guess we'll let you get back to to mingling and and prepping for for your panel coming up here. I guess anything that you would want to leave a stable, you know, stable point minded listener, or maybe even somebody that they're just starting to dip their toes in, maybe something that, like you said, was intimidating at first and or even any analogies that might have, you know, helped you frost the chasm.

I know you just kind of briefly alluded to one, but but what would you have to say to somebody that's a first time attendee here and and they're getting started? I think for for the next conversation, I need to improve my my stablecoin sandwich analogy. Really make

it through the bread and through the meats and white Exact I think there's lots to be done there, but I think the the most important part is have a beginner's mindset. I think this is new to many people, not only in traditional finance and the crypto space. If you really fast forward, it's it's been less than a year, really from from the genius act. So attending conferences like this, having engaging conversations, and starting really with with one use case and iterating, I think it's super important.

Because if you start to boil the ocean on all the capabilities, you might get stuck in analysis paralysis and really looking deeply at, you know, who are the partners and who are the people that you want to grow with. And I would just even add on that. Just go try to send stablecoins yourself.

You know, go use an app, and I feel I feel like for so many people, there was, like, just kind of that one moment where you're like, wait. It was that fast? Like, just kind of a nice way to start start breaking down those barriers. So but, Monica, thank you for sitting down with us. We'll be right back with another guest shortly live from the BITSO Sibylcoin Conference here in CDMX. This was Monica from Anchorage Digital. And, like I said, thanks again for coming on. Thank you. Awesome.