According to online reports, Anchorage Digital announced on Monday the acquisition of Mountain Protocol and officially entered the stablecoin market. The transaction comes at the same time as Mountain decided to "shut down USDM in an orderly manner." Nathan McCauley, CEO of Anchorage, said: "By acquiring Mountain Protocol, we have taken an important step in supporting institutional adoption of stablecoins." Anchorage is the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States and will absorb Mountain's team, technology and licenses. USDM is a stablecoin based on Ethereum, pegged to the US dollar, and backed by short-term US debt.