Anchorage Digital Partners with Lydian to Bring Stablecoin Payments to Everyday Merchants

TL;DR: Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A. provides the stablecoin minting, redemption, and custody infrastructure behind Lydian’s merchant acceptance platform, so merchants of every size can accept stablecoins at checkout and settle in local currency, with a federally chartered bank behind the assets. The companies are also exploring a broader role for Anchorage Digital Bank as the settlement hub for stablecoin payment flows.

Anchorage Digital, home to America’s first federally chartered crypto bank, today announced a partnership with Lydian, a digital asset payment infrastructure company that enables merchants and payment providers to accept stablecoins and other digital assets online and at the point of sale and settle in local currency. Under the partnership, Lydian has onboarded to Anchorage Digital Bank for stablecoin minting and redemption, with digital assets custodied at Anchorage Digital Bank, N.A.

Lydian builds the acceptance layer that payment and point of sale providers plug into so their merchants can take stablecoins at checkout. A customer pays from any digital wallet, in any supported stablecoin or digital asset, and the merchant receives local currency the same way they would from a card, with no need to hold or manage digital assets themselves. 

Anchorage Digital Bank sits underneath that merchant experience. Today, Lydian uses Anchorage Digital Bank to mint stablecoins from fiat and redeem them back to fiat, with assets held in institutional custody at a federally chartered bank with segregated accounts and audited controls. The companies are also exploring a broader arrangement in which stablecoin payment flows across Lydian’s merchant network would be aggregated and settled at Anchorage Digital Bank, a role comparable to an acquiring a bank for digital assets. Most payment and point of sale providers cannot hold or move stablecoins directly. Lydian’s acceptance layer, backed by a federally chartered bank at the center of the flow, lets those providers offer stablecoin acceptance to their merchants. The result: a neighborhood business accepting stablecoins through Lydian is supported by the same bank-grade minting, redemption, and custody that serves institutional clients. 

“Stablecoins reach everyday commerce when the providers merchants already use can accept them, and those providers need a regulated bank in the middle of the flow. Lydian is building the acceptance layer for stablecoin payments at the point of sale and bringing it to merchants of every size. Providing the minting, redemption, custody, and eventually the settlement infrastructure behind that is exactly the role a federally chartered crypto bank should play.” —Nathan McCauley, Co-Founder and CEO of Anchorage Digital

The partnership reflects growing demand for regulated infrastructure as stablecoins move from trading venues into commerce. Lydian’s own research finds that 73% of consumers are already using, or plan to use, stablecoins for recurring bills such as rent, utilities, and tuition (a Lydian survey of 7,500 consumers across 5 markets). As the first U.S. federally regulated stablecoin issuer, Anchorage Digital Bank gives payments companies, fintechs, and financial institutions a single partner for stablecoin issuance, custody, and settlement held to the same standards as any other national bank.

“For a long time, the debate around stablecoin payments has been about market needs. But that’s only half the challenge. The other half is whether merchants at the last mile can offer stablecoins as a payment option. Small merchants especially have always been forced to pay more and receive less when it comes to payments, and that’s something we’ve been trying to change. Our partnership with Anchorage Digital Bank means a neighborhood business can now run on the same infrastructure as the world’s largest institutions. That’s what real financial inclusion looks like.” —Carl Grimstad, CEO of Lydian

The partnership builds on Anchorage Digital Bank’s momentum across leadership in stablecoin and payments infrastructure in 2026. To learn more about Anchorage Digital Bank's stablecoin issuance, or payments offerings, please get in touch. Payment and point of sale providers interested in offering stablecoin acceptance to their merchants can learn more at lydian.com. 

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