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Atlas (Anchorage Digital Trusted Liquidity and Settlement) enables institutions to mitigate counterparty risk and enhance capital efficiency through peer-to-peer settlement. All custody clients have access to Atlas.

What is settlement, and why it matters

Settlement is the moment a trade actually completes — when each side delivers what it owes and the assets change hands. Between agreeing a trade and settling it, every party is exposed to counterparty risk: the chance the other side fails to deliver after you’ve already sent your funds. The traditional way to reduce that risk is to pre-fund — move your assets onto an exchange or to the counterparty before you trade. That solves trust by giving up control: your assets sit off your balance sheet, outside custody, earning nothing and exposed to the venue’s own risk. Inefficient settlement ties up capital and multiplies the places your assets can be lost. Efficient settlement is the opposite: assets stay safe until the instant both sides are ready, then move together. Less capital tied up, less time exposed, fewer intermediaries.

How Atlas makes settlement better

With Atlas, both counterparties settle directly from Anchorage Digital custody:
  • No pre-funding a third party. Your assets never leave custody to sit on an exchange waiting to trade — they move only at settlement.
  • Both sides approve. Two-sided settlements require quorum approval from each party, so neither side delivers unless the other is committed — removing the “who sends first” problem.
  • Efficient. Once both parties approve and conditions are met, Atlas processes the settlement directly from custody.
  • Trusted counterparties. Settle with the Anchorage Digital trading desks and a growing network of sell-side institutions, identified by participant ID.
To take advantage of advanced functionalities such as simultaneous two-way settlements, reach out to Anchorage Digital to sign up for Atlas Plus.

Getting started with Atlas

Set up participants

Create your network participants.

Share participant IDs

Other network participants will use the ID to settle with your participants.

Add trusted counterparties

Search counterparties by participant ID and add them to your trusted counterparties.

Settle

Propose and/or accept settlements.

Setting up participants

Viewing & sharing participants

Trusted counterparties

Settling

Email notifications

Receive email notifications for settlement activity. Notification destinations can be configured at the organization level or for individual Atlas participant accounts. Navigate to Document delivery in Settings to set up or update your distribution list for settlement network notifications.