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At Anchorage Digital, every movement runs through the same controls that secure the assets themselves: segregated, HSM-secured vaults governed by policy-based quorum. The money-movement APIs are built so you can automate and scale movement without stepping outside that security model. Funds come in through a deposit, sit in your wallets and vaults, and move out in one of two ways. Which way you use depends on two things: how much per-transaction control you want, and where the funds are going.

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Start here

  • Receive funds — Create wallets and deposit addresses to bring digital assets or USD into Anchorage Digital. See Deposit.
  • Transfer — Move assets between your wallets or to a trusted destination, without per-transaction quorum. See Transfer.
  • Withdraw — Move assets with quorum approval on every request. See Withdraw.

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The mental model

A deposit is the only way funds enter Anchorage Digital, and receiving never requires quorum. Everything else is a movement out of—or between—your holdings. There are exactly two kinds, split by approval model.
Diagram showing funds flowing from Deposit into Your wallets and vaults, then branching to Transfer (no per-transaction quorum) and Withdrawal (quorum on each request).
Transfers move assets without quorum approval on each request, which suits recurring or high-frequency flows. In exchange, they require one-time setup: an allowlisted destination and a permission group scoped to the operation. Withdrawals require quorum approval on every request, giving you control over each individual movement through your vault policies. Both transfers and withdrawals can go to an internal wallet you own or to an external destination outside Anchorage Digital. External movements add two requirements: the destination must be an allowlisted trusted destination, and the request must carry AML questionnaire information for the transaction and recipient.
This guide assumes you’re familiar with quorum and approval rules. If you’re not, start with vault policies.

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Where quorum applies

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Support at a glance

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Move money support

Deposits are supported for both digital assets and USD. Trusted destinations for digital assets can be managed via API and the web platform. USD (fiat) trusted destinations are managed in the web platform today.

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Quorum required

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Trusted destination required

Trusted destinations (allowlisted addresses and bank recipients) let you pre-approve an external destination for use across the iOS app, web dashboard, and APIs.
If you want to restrict Withdrawal API destinations to only trusted/allowlisted addresses, reach out to your point of contact to enable this.

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Before you move money: prerequisites

Internal movements work with standard API access. External movements—external transfers and withdrawals to new destinations—require one-time setup, and quorum is required at several of these steps.
Four-step flow: Add trusted destination (requires quorum) → Configure permissions (requires quorum) → Create API key (quorum to activate) → Call the API (AML required for external).
  1. Allowlist a trusted destination — Pre-approve the external address or bank recipient. Adding a trusted destination requires quorum approval. See Trusted destinations.
  2. Configure external transfer permissions — Enable external transfers on the permission group the key uses. This permission is configurable: scope it to specific trusted destinations, or allow any quorum-approved trusted destination. See Permission groups and API keys.
  3. Create and activate an API key — API keys with external transfer or withdrawal permissions require quorum approval before they can be used. See Authentication.
  4. Include AML information — External transfers and withdrawals carry AML questionnaire information in the request payload. See AML questionnaire.
Keep internal and external transfer permissions in separate permission groups and API keys. Do not combine them.