Eight months after a $4.2 billion Tether valuation, Anchorage Digital cuts 17% of its staff

At $4.2 billion, Tether's $100 million bought roughly 2.4% of Anchorage ^[2][16]. The valuation is the price of that slice. Because the deal also funded the employee tender offer ^[7], not all of the $100 million necessarily reached Anchorage's own accounts, and the reports do not say how it was split. Cryptopolitan wrote that the layoffs "do not appear as a desperate need for cash, but as an effort to reduce expenses" ^[19].

The 2023 round shows what Anchorage does with headcount. Seventy-five people at 20% of staff implies about 375 employees before that cut and 300 after ^[8][21]. McCauley told Congress in February 2025 that the company had about 400 ^[5], so Anchorage added roughly 100 net hires in under two years ^[22]. During the 2023 cuts, client assets under custody hit a record ^[9].

If headcount was still near 400 this year, the 17% cut ^[1] comes to the estimated 68 ^[3] and takes staff to about 332 ^[10]. That gives back about two-thirds of the net hiring since 2023 ^[23] and still leaves Anchorage larger than it was after its last round ^[21].

By the year's standards, Anchorage's estimated cut is about average. Block's 4,000 is about 54% of the 2026 tally ^[17]. Spread the remaining 3,411 across the other 59 companies and the average is about 58 jobs ^[18]. Hiring is thin as well. Tiger Research found new listings on the main crypto job boards down about 80% year over year in January ^[13]. Of the 2,932 openings it tracked in the first half, engineering made up 34.1%, stablecoins and payments 13.4%, and compliance and legal 10.4% ^[14].

If 2023 repeats, Anchorage keeps a smaller staff while custody assets hold up, then hires again when prices recover. A retreat would look different: a business line wound down, or cuts reaching Anchorage Digital Bank N.A., the only federally chartered crypto-focused national trust bank in the US ^[6]. Cryptopolitan argues for a third reading, that regulated infrastructure firms are concentrating resources ^[20]. In June, Binance added Anchorage to its triparty banking network, letting institutions keep collateral in regulated custody while they trade ^[15].

I think a repeat of 2023 is the most likely outcome. A price set on a 2.4% stake does not pay salaries, and Anchorage has now cut staff twice in weak markets and grew in between ^[8][4][22]. The opposing view is that the cut tracks falling revenue that the February price has not yet reflected. A lower custody figure in Anchorage's next update would support that view and show that the cost-cutting explanation is wrong.