Anchorage Digital Bank has added custody support for xU3O8, a token representing ownership of physical uranium, giving institutional investors access to tokenized uranium through segregated accounts at the first federally chartered crypto bank in the United States.

The move brings physical uranium exposure onto institutional digital-asset custody infrastructure. xU3O8 is issued on Etherlink, an Ethereum Virtual Machine-compatible layer-2 network that settles on the Tezos blockchain, meaning the token can work with widely used Ethereum tooling while its transactions ultimately settle on Tezos. Anchorage said institutional clients can now custody xU3O8 alongside other Etherlink-based assets.

What the xU3O8 Token Represents

xU3O8 represents ownership of physical uranium, the fuel used in nuclear power generation, allowing investors to gain exposure to the commodity without directly handling or storing the underlying material. Because ownership is recorded as a token, exposure to uranium can be held and transferred through on-chain balances rather than through direct participation in the physical supply chain. CoinMarketCap data puts the token's market capitalization at just above $9 million at current prices, a modest figure that shows how early tokenized uranium remains as an institutional asset class.

Barriers to Direct Uranium Access

According to Anchorage, uranium has traditionally been difficult for investors to access directly because physical exposure involves specialist intermediaries, lengthy settlement cycles, and relatively high minimum investment sizes.

Tokenization changes the settlement process by putting ownership representation on-chain. Anchorage said transactions involving tokenized uranium can be transferred and settled in minutes rather than weeks, potentially reducing the operational friction associated with traditional uranium transactions.

A Federally Chartered Custodian for the Token

The Anchorage integration is significant for xU3O8 because it adds a federally chartered banking institution to the custody infrastructure supporting the token. Anchorage became the first federally chartered digital-asset bank after receiving a national trust bank charter from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency in January 2021, a regulatory standing that underpins its argument that tokenized assets can sit within the same risk frameworks institutions already apply to conventional holdings. Anchorage said the assets are held through segregated custody accounts, allowing institutional clients to maintain tokenized uranium exposure within a bank-based custody framework.

Anchorage is not the first institutional custodian to support xU3O8. Hex Trust integrated Etherlink in August 2025 to provide custody for xU3O8 and other assets issued on the network.

Part of a Broader Tokenization Shift

The development also highlights a broader shift in how physical commodities can be represented and transferred digitally. Much of the tokenization of traditional assets to date has centered on financial instruments such as government securities and money-market funds, along with metals like gold, making a token tied to an industrial fuel like uranium a less common entry in the category. Instead of requiring investors to interact directly with the physical uranium supply chain, tokenization creates an on-chain representation of ownership, while custody arrangements connect that representation to the underlying commodity. Under this model, the physical commodity itself remains within the existing supply chain while its ownership is represented and transferred digitally.

For xU3O8, the immediate institutional question is therefore moving beyond whether uranium can be tokenized to whether regulated custody, liquidity, and settlement infrastructure can make the token usable by professional investors. With Hex Trust already providing custody and Anchorage now adding bank-level support, the markers to watch include whether additional custodians and trading venues extend coverage to Etherlink-based assets, and whether the token's liquidity develops enough for institutional-size positions to be transacted without friction.

Anchorage CEO and Co-Founder Nathan McCauley said:

"Institutions are not short on interest in tokenized real-world assets. They are short on places to hold them that satisfy a risk framework. Adding Etherlink support means an allocator looking at tokenized uranium or onchain dollars can hold those assets at a federally chartered bank, with the same controls they already apply to the rest of their portfolio."

Source: BitcoinKE