The Anima Items you get from World Quests, treasure chests, and command table missions, aren’t tradable.
But imagine a world where they are.
If you don’t want to gather anima for expansions of your covenant, you could just sell it on the AH for some gold that may even get you to keep playing thanks to tokens.
People who play with buddies, could gift them Anima items which could be a great present for those who are just starting out. It’s not like EVERYTHING costs Anima, there is still the limiting factors of Released Souls to keep everyhting in a limit.
Say you clear the whole place of anima, and you end up being just 5 anima short of an upgrade. So, you go out and look for a chest, a rare, something to give you that last 5 anima so that you can upgrade your stuff. Now imagine if you could buy one of those on AH for a little gold.
Anima could be used and gathered for the purpose of getting gold, subject to the sway of WoW markets, traded or sold for the more enticing currency of gold, to those few who don’t want the stuff offered in the covenants.
Countless times, I have seen people asking if anyone wants their anima items, only to realize that they do not trade. I can only imagine how many of these items get thrown out because of this.