Agora CEO Nick van Eck pushes back at Anchorage's 'stablecoin safety matrix,' which ranked AUSD as notably risky

Crypto financial services firm Anchorage published a "stablecoin safety matrix" report on Thursday that has received some pushback from certain issuers.

In particular, Nick van Eck, founder and CEO of Agora, the issuer of the AUSD stablecoin that received a particularly low rating, alleged that Anchorage's scores were biased by its "pay to play" arrangements with certain stablecoin firms, including Paxos.

According to van Eck, Anchorage delisted both Agora's AUSD and Circle's USDC tokens citing "structural risk," including the lack of regulatory oversight and poor liability management over the back assets.

However, van Eck suggests that the delisting of AUSD was retaliation after Agora refused to sign up for "Genius Bill as a Service" product. "The same Anchorage executive who reached out to me, confirmed two companies were planning to use their 'Genius Bill as a Service' product. I surmise they are deemed 'safe' stablecoins," van Eck wrote.

"If Anchorage had just delisted USDC and AUSD to prioritize the stablecoins that they have an economic interest in, I would understand it as a business decision. Private businesses can and should act in their own interests," van Eck continued. "But attempting to delegitimize AUSD and USDC for 'security concerns,' while knowingly publishing false information, is unserious and bizarre."

The Block has reached out to Anchorage for further comment.

The report comes amid a critical moment for the stablecoin sector as U.S. legislators begin to make headway on concrete regulations, like the GENIUS Act, which could be signed into law by the end of the summer. With regulatory clarity in the offering, major companies from banks to national retailers are reportedly mulling stablecoin integrations.

Anchorage said its safety matrix is a "comparative reference tool" that draws exclusively from public disclosures and third-party documents. It looked at a stablecoin's reserves composition, including asset quality, banking partners, equity buffers, and mechanisms to mitigate credit risk as well as an issuer's relationship to regulators.

$PYUSD, backed by PayPal, and $USDP, backed by Paxos, were Anchorage's top ranking stablecoins. This was followed by Ripple's RLUSD, Tether's USDT, and Global Dollar's USDG, the latter of which is supported by a "network" of operators including Robinhood, Galaxy, Kraken, and Anchorage, among others.

Van Eck noted that AUSD uses State Street as its cash custodian and fund administrator of the Agora Reserve Fund. Aasset manager VanEck is also the investment manager for the Agora Reserve Fund.

Circle went public on the NYSE earlier this month and has seen its valuation skyrocket.