Overview
- People familiar with the matter say the bank is in early discussions to set up a digital-asset prime brokerage, with no launch timeline decided.
- The contemplated service would target institutions with custody, financing, trading, and clearing for crypto assets.
- The push builds on Standard Chartered’s backing of Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets and follows an expanded December partnership with Coinbase covering trading, custody, staking, and lending.
- The venture-arm structure is seen as a way to manage Basel III rules that assign a 1,250% risk weight to permissionless crypto, as regulators debate possible revisions with uncertain outcomes.
- Recent groundwork includes the bank’s July move to offer spot Bitcoin and Ether trading to institutions via its UK branch and SC Ventures’ Project37C concept for custody, tokenization, and market access.