Anchorage co-founder sees 'tons of opportunity' as it expands into Asia

cointelegraph.com:

Anchorage Digital co-founder and president Diogo Mónica believe there is immense opportunity in Asia’s institutional investors, with the digital asset infrastructure provider on Oct. 5 announcing a “major expansion” of its platform into the region. 

Speaking to Cointelegraph, Mónica said the company chose Singapore as a “jump point” into the wider Asia market as the country has become a hub for crypto companies and has a strong regulatory environment. Anchorage is currently undertaking the application process with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state's central bank.

However, Mónica said he sees “tons of opportunity” in the Thai, Indonesian, Japanese and South Korean crypto markets as well, after speaking to regulators there, though he expects the company will need a more local presence.

“Right now our strategy is being regulated in Singapore as it’s recognized by all the other regulators as a great location,” Mónica says, adding other regulators in the region have “very strict, but very clear rules, which is amazing.”

Anchorage provides infrastructure for use by financial institutions to enable digital asset custody, exchange, staking and other Web3-related services.

Mónica said however that Asian institutional investors have changed their tune on how they approached crypto investments after the wake of the Terra ecosystem collapse.

He said it was rarer for Asia-based institutions to care about the security of the assets up until recently, with a tendency of focusing more on product features. However, in the wake of the collapse and the resulting sluggish crypto market, the focus has shifted to regulation, risk management and business continuity.

Mónica says Anchorage already has a team in Singapore with