Visa’s crypto ambitions are continuing apace, with the world-leading credit card company recently announced a strategic investment in the digital asset custodian Anchorage.
Raising $40 million in a Visa co-led series B fundraising round with participation from Andreessen Horowitz’s VC firm, Blockchain Capital, Anchorage offers institutional custodian that claims to be more secure than storage alternatives while boasting active on-chain participation.
The San Francisco based firm has previously raised $17 million in a Series A round led by Andreessen Horowitz. Also participating in funding were PayPal co-founder Max Levchin’s SciFi VC, Mark McCombe of Blackrock, and AngelList co-founder Naval Ravikant.
Another toe into crypto
Anchorage’s custody offering provides digital asset security without Cold Storage because of its limitations, such as vulnerabilities to human error, theft, and inaccessibility. As such, the company claims that it solves a major industry problem as cold storage also renders the asset illiquid to an extent as it becomes inaccessible and slow to move.
In turn, Visa is dipping another toe into cryptocurrency space after the company joined major players to back Facebook’s crypto plans. The financial giant has been looking to embed itself in emerging payment forms and has already developed partnerships with cryptocurrency and blockchain firms.
The move is part of the company’s broader push to expand its reach beyond the credit card industry, where it is one of the dominant players worldwide.
Anchorage is also among over a dozen companies investing up to $10 million each to back Facebook’s new cryptocurrency, Libra. Both companies are part of the Libra Association, giving them a say in how the cryptocurrency is managed.
Terry Angelos, who leads Visa's fintech efforts, said in a statement that “Visa is interested in supporting companies like Anchorage who are working to provide secure infrastructure to the growing ecosystem of digital assets. Anchorage is building the foundation to support an array of new financial services."
