Why the room needs them.
Diogo Mónica co-founded Anchorage Digital and is a general partner at Haun Ventures. Anchorage's trust company was conditionally approved by the OCC in 2021 to convert into a national trust bank. He spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 on the Hecto Main Stage, in a fireside on investment opportunities in stablecoins, and sat on the Proof of Pitch General Track the same afternoon.
The full account.
Diogo Mónica is a general partner at Haun Ventures and co-founder and executive chairman of the board of Anchorage Digital. He spoke at Proof of Talk Paris 2026 on 2 June, in a Hecto Main Stage fireside titled 'Investment Opportunities in the Rise of Stablecoins' with Rob Hadick of Dragonfly, moderated by Amanda Cassatt, and earlier that afternoon he took part on the panel of the Proof of Pitch General Track on the Taostats Stage.
Mónica took his degree in telecommunications and informatics engineering and his PhD in computer science at Instituto Superior Técnico, University of Lisbon. He worked on security at Square, now Block, before moving to Docker: The Register reported in March 2015 that he and Nathan McCauley, both former Square engineers, had joined the company together to lead its security engineering. In 2017 the pair incorporated Anchor Labs in Delaware, the company behind Anchorage Digital; a Form D filed with the SEC in July 2019 lists Mónica as an executive officer and director. On 13 January 2021 the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency announced conditional approval for Anchorage Trust Company, a South Dakota chartered trust company, to convert into Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association, stating that it had 'granted a national trust bank charter to Anchorage after thorough review of the company and its current operations'.
Fortune placed him in its 2020 40 Under 40 in the finance category, billed there as cofounder and president at Anchorage. On his own site he lists six patents, spanning payment systems, secure communications and digital asset custody.
Anchorage announced in March 2024 that it had created an executive chairman role for him, with McCauley continuing as chief executive, and that he was formalising his angel investing as a general partner at Haun Ventures; the company said he had made over 100 investments over the previous seven years. Writing in American Banker in August 2025, he argued that stablecoins are 'poised to transform the global financial system, competing with networks like SWIFT and SEPA'. His memos for Haun Ventures run from Chaos Labs in August 2024 to Jota in July 2026, the firm's first investment in Brazil. He wrote in February 2026 that he would join Erebor's board; a Form D filed with the SEC on 12 June 2026 lists him as a director of Erebor Bank, National Association.
What Diogo believes about the next ten years.
Years of shipping.
Lines that keep proving correct.
“Stablecoins won't just challenge the dominance of PayPal or Venmo. They are poised to transform the global financial system, competing with networks like SWIFT and SEPA.”
“The Anchorage Digital business model ultimately requires that institutions trust us to hold billions of dollars in digital assets safely, and before we had a successful track record, we were two security engineers with a slide deck.”
“As AI inference costs fall and capabilities grow, we expect that being built conversation-first from day one will turn into a structural advantage that gets harder to replicate over time.”
What they have built, written, and backed.
Built
- Anchorage DigitalCo-founded with Nathan McCauley; Anchor Labs was incorporated in Delaware in 2017 and the OCC announced conditional approval in January 2021 for its South Dakota trust company to convert into Anchorage Digital Bank, National Association. On 5 February 2026 the company announced a $100 million strategic investment from Tether and its first employee tender offer at a $4.2 billion valuation. The company describes itself as 'America's first federally chartered crypto bank for innovators and investors'.
- Security engineering at DockerThe Register reported in March 2015 that he and McCauley, both former Square engineers, had joined Docker to lead its security engineering. The pair said they were embedding themselves in the Docker engineering team and would begin a series of posts on infrastructure security best practices and container security in particular.
- Patents in payments and custodyHis own site lists six patents, assigned to Square, now Block, and to Anchor Labs. The titles listed span payment systems using card readers coupled to mobile devices, secure communications between devices using a trusted server, augmented reality deposit address verification, and digital asset custody, including custodial systems with logically separated cryptoassets and with proof-of-stake blockchain support.
- Investment memos at Haun VenturesSix pieces published under his name on haun.co between August 2024 and July 2026: Chaos Labs, Stablecoins: A Quiet Revolution, BVNK, Finisterra, Erebor and Jota, the last of these the firm's first investment in Brazil.
Diogo at Proof of Talk
The next Proof of Talk is in Abu Dhabi.
Louvre Abu Dhabi, 3–4 December 2026. Admission is by application, and the room is capped at 2,000.
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