Anchorage launches Atlas CMS to split custody, execution, credit

Anchorage Digital has launched Coordinated Multiparty Settlement (CMS), powered by its Atlas infrastructure, to separate custody, execution and credit in crypto trading. The company operates under a federal bank charter and says CMS will let institutional clients trade while keeping assets in qualified custody.

Under the CMS design, exchanges and non-custodial venues function only as matching engines. Prime brokers handle credit, margin and client relationships. Anchorage provides qualified custody and coordinates netted settlement across participating venues.

The platform collects trading activity from multiple venues, verifies the obligations between participants and executes a netted settlement when all sides are fully funded. Anchorage says clients’ assets remain in custody at the firm for the full lifecycle of each trade, removing the need to pre-fund individual trading venues and the associated capital lock-up and platform exposure.

Spotex, an electronic communications network that handles billions in daily foreign-exchange volume, will be among the first venues to integrate with CMS and offer crypto trading on Anchorage’s regulated infrastructure. John Miesner, Spotex’s chief executive, described the arrangement as “bringing crypto trading into an institutional framework with a clear separation of execution, custody and credit intermediation,” and said clients have been waiting for that structure as markets mature.

Anchorage positions Atlas as a core market infrastructure layer for institutional digital-asset activity. The platform covers spot crypto today and is intended to expand to tokenized asset classes over time. The company is valued at about $4.2 billion and lists backers such as Andreessen Horowitz, Goldman Sachs, KKR, GIC and Visa. Anchorage holds a BitLicense from the New York Department of Financial Services and operates a licensed entity under the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The CMS architecture mirrors market structures used in foreign exchange and fixed-income trading, where custody, execution and credit intermediation are provided by separate, specialized participants. Anchorage said additional venues across traditional and digital-asset markets are in development to broaden market access and product types, and that the launch comes amid rising institutional demand following approval of spot Bitcoin ETFs and clearer regulatory guidance in the United States.