Anchorage adds support for staking of SPL-based tokens

Crypto custodian Anchorage Digital is expanding its services to include custody and staking support for Solana-based tokens.

Anchorage Digital Bank, a federally chartered crypto bank in the U.S., is expanding its offerings with custody and staking support for the Solana ecosystem. In an Aug. 6 announcement, the custodian said it will now support Solana-based tokens in the SPL standard in addition to its existing services for Solana’s (SOL) native token.

Nathan McCauley, co-founder of Anchorage Digital, emphasized that the decision was driven by increasing institutional demand for “safe and secure access to leading networks like Solana.”

Founded in 2017 by Nathan McCauley, Diogo Monica, and Boaz Avital, Anchorage Digital Bank is a crypto custodian that secured backing from such investors as Andreessen Horowitz, Blockchain Capital, and Oaktree Capital Management, among others. In early 2022, the custodian raised $80 million in a Series C funding round led by a16z.

More Solana-based tokens for institutions

Anchorage Digital’s latest service expansion aims to “meet rising institutional demand” for access to the Solana ecosystem, the custodian said, adding that it initially added support for SOL custody in 2022 and staking in 2023.

The SPL standard allows startups on the Solana network to issue their own tokens that can be integrated into various scenarios on the network, including decentralized applications, tokenization, payments, and governance. Similar to Ethereum’s ERC-20 and TRON’s TRC-20 standards, the SPL standard was designed to enhance usability cases of protocols on the Solana network.

The announcement coincides with Solana’s recent market activity, where it temporarily surpassed Binance Coin (BNB) to become the fourth-largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization, before settling back into the fifth position. Additionally, as crypto.news earlier reported, Solana outperformed Ethereum in on-chain trading activity on decentralized exchanges during July, boasting $55.8 billion in trading volume.