In a major effort to introduce crypto to institutional investors, one of the biggest asset managers in the world, Apollo Global Management Inc, has started storing cryptocurrency on behalf of its customers through a partnership with the digital asset platform Anchorage Digital.
The decision was made amid a difficult year for the cryptocurrency industry, with bitcoin, the largest digital asset in the world, down more than 50% since the start of 2022 as investors seemed uneasy about the world’s historically high rate of inflation.
“It’s the validation of this incessant drumbeat that [crypto] is here to stay,” said Diogo Mónica, president of Anchorage Digital, a crypto firm that holds a national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. “This is a very long-term horizon process and technology and that for the large institutions, it doesn’t really matter that there is volatility short term.”
The connection between Apollo and Anchorage began in the middle of last year, when the firm first started looking into the best ways to protect its clients’ crypto assets, according to Apollo, which refuses to specify what kinds of crypto assets it holds. Later on, Apollo took part in Anchorage’s Series D funding round, which was finalized in December 2021.
Adam Eling, chief operating officer of Apollo’s digital assets division, stated, “As we explore creative ways to apply blockchain technology across Apollo’s business, we look forward to collaborating with Anchorage for the safekeeping of client assets.”
Mónica said that discussions regarding how Anchorage can eventually strengthen its partnership with Apollo are already ongoing.
Christine Moy, a former JPMorgan Chase executive who was hired in April by Apollo, will oversee the company’s digital asset strategy and play a crucial part in its investment decisions in cryptocurrencies, blockchain and Web3, a decentralized version of the internet.
