With over $500 billion in assets under management, Apollo Global Management is one of the world’s largest asset managers. Through a partnership with digital asset platform Anchorage Digital, Apollo is entering the cryptocurrency custody market.
At the first U.S. digital asset bank, Anchorage, Apollo will entrust a “substantial amount” of its cryptocurrency holdings. Apollo manages more than $500 billion in client assets.
In a statement released on Monday, Apollo COO Adam Eling cited Anchorage’s commitment to operating under strict regulatory oversight, the company’s strong emphasis on security and segregation of client assets, and the ease with which asset managers can hold digital tokens as reasons for the partnership.
Eling also mentioned that the firm would look at more use cases for blockchain technology internally.
Since August, when BlackRock partnered with Coinbase to offer Bitcoin trading and custody, this development signifies another important foray into crypto from a national leader in asset management. Earlier this month, Fidelity, one of the first large financial organizations to enter Bitcoin in 2018, began offering Ethereum trading to institutional clients.
In April, Apollo hired Christine Moy, formerly the head of crypto at JPMorgan, to serve as its Head of Digital Assets. Moy told Decrypt at last month’s SALT conference that Apollo wants to “place real-world assets on-chain” and is “seeking to be a real-world practitioner” of blockchain technology.
Despite the fact that 2018 has been a terrible year for cryptocurrency prices and trading activity alike, the two entities have decided to work together, which may be an indication of the continued interest in the asset class over the long run.
Anchorage president Diogo Mónica told Decrypt in an email, “Institutions are taking a long-term strategy to crypto.”
He was convinced that Apollo and other institutional partners are “here to stay,” but he wouldn’t say what digital assets it will hold in custody for Apollo.
Mónica remarked that “Apollo’s adoption of Anchorage’s custody platform is tremendously validating” because Apollo is a pioneer in the alternatives market.
More than a year ago, when Apollo was looking into the best ways to secure its clients’ cryptocurrency assets, they began working with Anchorage to do so.
Later, in December of last year, the asset management participated in Anchorage’s $350 million Series D fundraising round and contributed to the company’s expansion.
Mónica has previously dropped hints that major financial institutions and corporations have been working on products for several years that were expected to debut in “mid-to-late 2022.”
