AnchorWatch Opens Nevada Trust With $370M Cover and Split Bitcoin Keys

AnchorWatch opened AnchorWatch Trust Company (ATC) as a Nevada-chartered qualified bitcoin custodian, authorized by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division to provide custody services. ATC uses fixed-dollar custody pricing capped at $10,000 per month, and AnchorWatch has authority to write up to $370M of insurance coverage per ATC client, backed by A+ rated Lloyd's of London syndicates.

The ATC service is aimed at public companies holding BTC, a category that has expanded sharply as more corporations added the asset to their balance sheets. Its multi-institution model addresses concentration risk at a single custodian.

Keys Split Across Three Institutions

ATC offers two custody models. In Flagship Custody, ATC holds required keys while client trustees or executives hold keys alongside it. In multi-institution custody, ATC distributes keys across ATC, BitGo in the US and CoinCorner in the Isle of Man.

AnchorWatch says ATC was approved to provide custody services with multi-entity key distribution clearly at the center of its security model. We think that matters because many institutions must use a qualified custodian or trust company, and until now that usually meant giving up key control to a single provider.

A Fee Cap Instead of a Percentage

Under the fixed-dollar pricing, no client pays more than $10,000 per month in custody fees. AnchorWatch says the annual custody fee for $100M of bitcoin is capped at $120,000, an effective 0.12% or better.

For large enterprises, AnchorWatch said, the pricing cap will translate to potential six- or seven-figure annual savings for qualified custody. That is a company projection, and the actual savings depend on what each client pays a custodian today.

Insurance in the Client's Own Name

AnchorWatch says its insurance policies can be issued in the customer's or entity's own name, not only the custodian's. The coverage can include perils such as violent coercion, kidnapping and fraudulent conduct by AnchorWatch itself, subject to underwriting approval, policy limits and other terms.

The AnchorWatch insurance is available to US-domiciled companies and subsidiaries and to US individuals. The up to $370M of coverage per ATC client is backed by A+ rated Lloyd's of London syndicates.

Why It Matters

Many institutions must use a qualified custodian, and until now that usually meant handing key control to a single provider, a gatekeeper that becomes one point of failure for seizure, fraud or coercion. ATC's multi-institution custody distributes keys across ATC, BitGo and CoinCorner, which we think is the closest a regulated balance sheet can get to the self-custody ethos that makes Bitcoin worth holding. Because ATC caps fixed-dollar custody pricing at $10,000 per month, we think it also breaks the incentive for a custodian to skim a percentage of every growing corporate bitcoin treasury. A qualified custodian is still a compromise forced on institutions by fiat-era rules, and for everyone else the strongest custody remains your own keys.