AnchorWatch Opens Nevada Trust Company, Caps Custody at $10,000 a Month

AnchorWatch Trust Company, a Nevada state-chartered trust company authorized by the Nevada Financial Institutions Division, opened for business on Monday, offering qualified Bitcoin custody for fiduciaries, public companies, trusts and high-net-worth individuals. The parent firm, which brands itself as a Bitcoin-native insurance and custody company, also capped its fees at $10,000 per month. The announcement, made through a company release, positions ATC against qualified custodians that charge a percentage of assets under custody.

The fee structure is the launch's sharpest break from market practice. Pricing consists of fixed-dollar annual fees tiered by vault size, capped at $10,000 per month. Once a client reaches the cap, additional bitcoin purchases or price appreciation do not raise the annual fee. For an enterprise holding hundreds of millions of dollars in bitcoin, the difference from percentage-based pricing is material.

AnchorWatch quantified the claim. "For large enterprises, the pricing cap will translate to potential six- or seven-figure annual savings for qualified custody," the company said in its announcement. That figure is a projection, not a measured result, and assumes custody agreements currently priced at basis points on large holdings. No client names or contracted volumes were disclosed.

How does the custody model work?

ATC offers two qualified-custody configurations. Under Flagship Custody, ATC holds the keys required for qualified custody while the client's trustees or executives retain additional keys. Under the multi-institution model, key control is distributed across three institutions: AnchorWatch Trust Company, BitGo in the United States and CoinCorner in the Isle of Man.

The multi-institution model targets a persistent institutional concern: concentration risk at a single custodian. That anxiety has sharpened after prior industry failures, and distributing key control across jurisdictions is one structural response. Whether fiduciaries will accept a three-party signing arrangement remains untested at scale.

What does the insurance cover?

Clients may apply for insurance issued in the covered client's or entity's own name, a structure AnchorWatch contrasts with policies held in the custodian's name, where coverage terms can leave the client's position in a claim ambiguous. The insurance is provided by AnchorWatch and backed by A+ rated Lloyd's of London syndicates.

As a Lloyd's of London Coverholder, AnchorWatch says it holds authority to write up to $370 million in limits per ATC client. Covered perils include violent coercion and kidnapping, plus losses arising from fraudulent acts by AnchorWatch itself. Coverage remains subject to underwriting approval and policy terms, a caveat the company itself attaches to every figure.

Availability is bounded. Insurance applies to U.S.-domiciled companies and subsidiaries and to U.S.-resident individuals. Custody without insurance may extend to a broader set of jurisdictions, subject to KYC and AML requirements.

What sits underneath?

The custody stack is Trident Vault, AnchorWatch's underlying platform, which the company says has secured customer bitcoin for 20 months. Security firms Halborn and Doyensec have audited or reviewed it, as have the technical underwriters at the Lloyd's syndicates backing the policies. The audits were commissioned disclosures, and no independent timeline or scope was published alongside the launch.

The target market is explicit: public companies holding BTC, a category that has expanded as corporations add the asset to balance sheets. For treasurers weighing qualified-custody obligations, a fixed-dollar fee removes the variable cost that percentage pricing imposes as holdings grow. What the announcement does not say is how many clients have signed, or at what asset levels the cap actually bites.

ATC now competes with established qualified custodians on fee transparency, key distribution and named insured coverage. Adoption over the coming quarters, particularly among public-company treasuries, will test whether fixed pricing survives contact with underwriting costs.