Anchorage Digital hired Aaron Schnarch as its first company-wide chief operating officer on April 22, 20241. Schnarch had just run Coinbase Custody, a rival to Anchorage, as chief executive. Anchorage's April 22, 2024 post said the company had passed $50 billion in assets under custody earlier that year.
The third executive hire at Anchorage Digital on the record since 2022
Every move CryptoLately has verified there, by the day it became public
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| Jan. 19, 2022 | Anderika became Chief Risk Officer. Rachel Anderika was named Chief Risk Officer, Anchorage Digital Bank of Anchorage Digital |
| Feb. 28, 2023 | Williams joined the board. Julie L. Williams joined the board of Anchorage Digital |
| March 13, 2024 | Le became General Counsel. TuongVy Le was named General Counsel of Anchorage Digital |
| April 22, 2024 | Schnarch became COO. Aaron Schnarch was named Chief Operating Officer of Anchorage Digital |
| June 13, 2024 | Shoemaker joined the board. Connie Shoemaker joined the board of Anchorage Digital |
39 executive hires on the record in 2024
Executive hires CryptoLately has verified, by year; 2026 through Oct. 2, 2026
- 2024: 39
- 2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2023, 2025, 2026
Moves: The Moves Ledger, CryptoLately's record of verified leadership moves, Oct. 3, 2016 to Oct. 2, 2026.
Read the chart as a table
| Item | Value |
|---|---|
| 2019 | 11 |
| 2020 | 12 |
| 2021 | 27 |
| 2022 | 37 |
| 2023 | 20 |
| 2024 | 39 |
| 2025 | 59 |
| 2026 | 45 |
The hire
Anchorage's own post framed the new role around company-wide scale. “Today, we're excited to continue our momentum by announcing the appointment of our first company-wide Chief Operating Officer (COO), Aaron Schnarch,” the company wrote. In the role, Schnarch would “oversee all business lines including custody, trading, staking, settlement, and self-custody, as well as sales, marketing, and business development”1.
Co-founder and chief executive Nathan McCauley credited Schnarch's background on both sides of the custody business. “His deep expertise in both traditional finance and the crypto industry, combined with his proven track record of driving innovation and growth, make him the perfect fit for this newly created COO position,” McCauley said1. Schnarch answered with a claim about timing. “The next growth phase of the digital asset industry will be driven by institutional adoption,” Schnarch said. “Anchorage Digital provides clients with unparalleled regulatory clarity, and has built a distinct product, engineered from the ground up for institutions”.
Anchorage before and after Schnarch
Before joining Anchorage, Schnarch had led Coinbase Custody as chief executive. He also served as vice president of product management at Coinbase Global, Crowdfund Insider reported, work that included "scaling institutional staking" and "supporting infrastructure for its Bitcoin ETF products"2. His earlier résumé ran through traditional finance. He spent more than a decade in senior roles at Broadridge Financial Solutions and at SunGard, now part of FIS. At Broadridge, he helped found its Blockchain Steering Committee1.
Anchorage's post tied the new COO role to a run of launches that preceded it. Anchorage had introduced Porto, a self-custody wallet for institutions, earlier in 20241. It had also extended custody to tokenized money market funds in early 2024. Crowdfund Insider's report repeated Anchorage's own figures on funding and scale. Anchorage's backers include Andreessen Horowitz, GIC, Goldman Sachs, KKR and Visa, at a Series D valuation above $3 billion2.
What came next
Banking Dive interviewed McCauley about the new position on April 24, 2024. That was two days after Schnarch's April 22 appointment. He said Anchorage had moved from "building a regulatory and technical stack for institutional participation in crypto" to a phase "all about scaling to meet unprecedented institutional demand." Schnarch, he said, would “play a key role in helping Anchorage Digital scale to best meet the needs of institutions in crypto”3. McCauley named Anchorage's core custody offering as the area he expected to see "major growth" under Schnarch, as more asset managers, advisors and hedge funds entered digital assets.
Sources
- Anchorage Digital, "Anchorage Digital Appoints Aaron Schnarch, Former CEO of Coinbase Custody, as Chief Operating Officer," Anchorage Digital, April 22, 2024, https://www.anchorage.com/insights/anchorage-digital-appoints-aaron-schnarch-former-ceo-coinbase-custody-as-chief-operating-officer
- Omar Faridi, "Anchorage Digital Appoints Aaron Schnarch, Former CEO of Coinbase Custody, as COO," Crowdfund Insider, April 23, 2024, https://www.crowdfundinsider.com/2024/04/224161-anchorage-digital-appoints-aaron-schnarch-former-ceo-of-coinbase-custody-as-coo/
- Banking Dive, "Anchorage Digital CEO says custody, staking services poised for growth," Banking Dive, April 24, 2024, https://news.google.com/rss/articles/CBMiqgFBVV95cUxObjdydnlQR1NoZDcyZEhUTEhIQ3g0ZUJweG9RcGNZcjcyYk9SMnNmVlpreE1ERkZDUEdIT1FpbFBEQ0RYYjVaUmJGcFhQY1QyM0tBb014YlhYMnNNci1SNEY5RDJacDFlMkdXYXI2OUdGM0FFZl9idnI2ZTdVYmtmcGx3cm9TWmdoNTU4VmhQYndZOW9TaEJhNDdDb1RXZlpZd3EyWHBZR090Zw?oc=5