Anchorage Digital has teamed up with Spark to enable institutional crypto-backed lending through Atlas, its collateral management and settlement platform.
The collaboration allows institutions to tap into Spark’s lending liquidity while keeping collateral held in Anchorage Digital Bank custody. This approach bridges DeFi markets with institutional-grade risk management and compliance frameworks.
Under the agreement, Anchorage Digital acts as the collateral agent for Spark, handling all collateral operations within its custody infrastructure. The Atlas platform monitors live loan-to-value (LTV) ratios, processes interest payments, issues margin calls, and executes liquidations when necessary.
Introducing new lending protocols
Initial activity under the partnership shows multiple institutional borrowers drawing substantial loans against BTC collateral. Daily monitoring tracks fluctuations in LTV ratios, ensuring collateral coverage aligns with risk parameters. For context, Atlas can handle hundreds of millions of dollars in collateral while issuing automated margin calls within minutes, reducing operational risk and eliminating manual oversight bottlenecks. This data-driven workflow demonstrates how DeFi lending protocols can serve institutional clients at scale, without requiring borrowers to move assets fully on-chain.
By keeping BTC collateral off-chain in qualified custody, institutional borrowers gain access to DeFi liquidity while retaining full compliance and security controls. This model opens a new pathway for institutions seeking exposure to decentralized capital markets without abandoning traditional operational safeguards. Anchorage Digital’s custody framework ensures that assets remain secure, while borrowers can interact directly with Spark’s lending pools.
For lending protocols, the partnership offers a blueprint for scaling institutional operations. Outsourcing collateral management, monitoring, and liquidation to Anchorage Digital allows protocols to focus on capital formation and market design instead of building in-house infrastructure.
As demand for crypto-backed institutional credit grows, Atlas collateral management positions Anchorage Digital as a bridge between regulated custody and DeFi liquidity. For both on-chain lenders and institutional borrowers, the collaboration signals that large-scale, compliant protocol lending may be operational and ready for growth.
