Haun Ventures' Diogo Mónica on Anchorage Digital's charter journey and the new wave of bank formation
Feb 20, 2026 with Diogo Mónica
Key Points
- Anchorage Digital became the first federally chartered crypto-native bank in 2021, breaking a two-decade drought in new federal bank charters that only thawed under a pro-business administration.
- The Synapse collapse exposed the structural risk of fintech firms renting banking licenses from third-party providers rather than owning charters outright, validating Anchorage's charter strategy.
- Diogo Mónica argues that the regulatory environment has shifted enough to make direct charter pursuit viable for crypto firms where it was previously treated as prohibitively difficult.
Summary
Diogo Mónica argues that obtaining a federal banking charter for crypto-native firms was nearly impossible until recently. When Anchorage Digital began pursuing its charter in 2020, even the consultants helping the process believed it would fail. For two decades before that, almost no new federal bank charters were issued annually. The shift came with a pro-business administration that created space for dozens of charter applications.
Mónica frames the charter as essential infrastructure for tech-driven financial firms. The Synapse collapse exposed a structural vulnerability in fintech's existing playbook. Relying on rented charters through banking-as-a-service providers is not a sustainable path for companies building world-class products. That failure validated the case for owning a charter outright.
Anchorage Digital secured its OCC charter in 2021, becoming the first federally chartered crypto-native bank. The regulatory environment has shifted enough to make direct charter pursuit viable where it was previously treated as prohibitively difficult. The Synapse event crystallized a lesson the industry was learning independently. If you want to build at scale in fintech, you cannot outsource your banking license to a partner whose viability you cannot control.