Standard Chartered has announced that they seek to launch a digital asset brokerage and exchange platform for UK and European institutional customers.
This new venture will be spearheaded as a joint-venture between StanChart’s innovation unit SC Ventures, BC Group which manages Hong Kong-licensed crypto exchange OSL. This is based in the UK with an aim of targeting the EU market. The name of this company is still unknown but expected to arrive in last quarter of 2021 with pending regulatory approvals from authorities around Europe.
With this move, StanChart will rival to some of the world’s biggest institutional crypto exchanges, including Gemini and BitGo. Institutional investors have ploughed into this space since Bitcoin has taken off with data collected by StanChart showing an average trading volume on major exchanges averaging over $4 billion per day for all tokens. Thi totals more than 1 trillion dollars across all cryptocurrencies.
The CEO of Bank announced that “We will be working closely with these partners to deliver secure solutions at scale." They are looking forward in expanding their clients reach through partnerships such as Bibox Exchange (based out of Singapore).
StanChart joins Wall Street in the crypto game along with the investment banks Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs and BNY Mellon. Notably these are t just some of names joining this new financial revolution by launching cryptocurrency trading desks for clients earlier this year.
JPMorgan also has a dedicated blockchain unit named Onyx, which is focused on developing its own token JPM Coin as well as an interbank payment network to improve transactions across borders quicker than ever before.
In the wake of Bitcoin’s exponential growth, American companies are scrambling to keep up with cryptocurrency trading. Tesla, Square and MicroStrategy have collectively bought billions of dollars worth for their corporate treasuries respectively in order to stay ahead on this new market trend. Now a new company will offer brokerage services that enable wider adoption by some major investors including “the world's largest and most demanding.”
No doubt the strong belief in bitcoin success is clearly reflected in the comments by Alex Manson, the head of SC Ventures:
“We have a strong conviction that digital assets are here to stay and will be adopted by the institutional market as a highly relevant asset class”
This is not first instance where StanChart has shown interest in cryptocurrencies, earlier the bank has invested in institutional custody service: Zodia Custody through a strategic partnership with Northern Trust in December.
Also, the company took a stake in blockchain technology provider Metaco and said it was working with central banks in Thailand and Hong Kong to explore how digital currency can be used for cross-border money transfers.
Clearly, more and more banks have started to take cryptocurrency as serious topic. If this story interests you, please like and share it on our different social media pages