Catenaa, Tuesday, January 20, 2026-Standard Chartered is preparing to launch a crypto prime brokerage as part of its SC Ventures unit, signaling the bank’s deepening push into institutional digital assets.
The London-based lender plans to house the business under its venture capital arm rather than its core corporate and investment bank, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Timing of the launch has not been confirmed.
The initiative follows Standard Chartered’s growing involvement in crypto infrastructure, including backing Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, and offering spot crypto trading to institutional clients—the first global systemically important bank to do so.
SC Ventures is also developing Project37C, a digital-asset platform providing custody, tokenization, and market access, showing overlapping capabilities with a prime brokerage.
The move comes amid increasing global institutional interest in digital assets. In the US, JPMorgan and Morgan Stanley have been expanding crypto offerings, while spot crypto ETFs now manage roughly $140 billion in assets.
Prime brokerages, providing execution, custody, financing, and securities lending, are increasingly viewed as core infrastructure for institutional participation in crypto markets.
Standard Chartered is also exploring a ringgit-pegged stablecoin with Bank Malaysia and AirAsia’s parent company Capital A under Malaysia’s Digital Asset Innovation Hub.
The initiative aligns with regulators’ efforts to encourage blockchain-based financial experimentation while banks compete across the full crypto market stack.
