United Kingdom’s prominent financial institution Standard Chartered Bank is set to launch a new trading desk for Ethereum and Bitcoin.
The company is establishing a trading desk for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) services, per a Bloomberg report that cites individuals who know the situation. The desk is anticipated to be unveiled shortly, as it is nearly finished.
Standard Chartered Creates History
The bank will become the first financial giant to provide consumers with spot trading services for Bitcoin and Ether upon the platform’s introduction. The new platform will be a component of the company’s FX trading unit, WFX, and will be administered from London.
Since 2022, other financial giants, including Goldman Sachs, have provided customers with crypto derivatives services. Nevertheless, the rigorous regulations of the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision have prevented these companies from expanding into the spot market.
The committee suggested new regulatory measures requiring banks to apply a 1,250% risk weighting to any unhedged crypto exposure. This would make it challenging for firms to generate profits from their ventures.
Standard Chartered informed Bloomberg that it has been collaborating with regulators to guarantee that institutional consumers have the opportunity to trade cryptocurrencies.
“We have been working closely with our regulators to support demand from our institutional clients to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, in line with our strategy to support clients across the wider digital asset ecosystem, from access and custody to tokenization and interoperability.”
Standard Chartered and Crypto
Standard Chartered has been actively involved in the crypto economy despite being one of the first global institutions to trade spot crypto.
The company’s venture capital unit, SC Ventures, implemented a blockchain tokenization platform called Libeara in November 2023.
Currently, the platform is one of the blockchain companies assisting the Singaporean government in exploring the potential for developing a tokenized government bond using its fiat currency.
Additionally, Standard Chartered has made strategic investments in numerous crypto-native companies, such as Zodia Markets and Zodia Custody. The bank holds considerable stakes in both companies, which provide institutional customers with over-the-counter trading and custody services.
The bank announced last year that it would introduce crypto custody services for institutional investors in Dubai to protect their BTC and Ether purchases.
On Partior, a blockchain global unified infrastructure market, the bank disclosed that it had successfully executed a Euro-denominated cross-border transaction between Singapore and Hong Kong in May 2024.
According to the organization, the initial Euro settlement bank implemented the platform. Nevertheless, the bank’s partnership with Partior commenced in November 2022, when it invested strategically in the Blockchain company.