Standard Chartered has launched a fully integrated digital assets trading service, in a bid to provide institutional clients with deliverable spot cryptoasset trading.
Bill Winters
The bank has said that the offering covers spot trading for Bitcoin (XBT/USD) and Ether (XET/USD) through its UK branch, with upcoming plans to launch non-deliverable forwards trading.
Specifically, institutional clients will be able to access and trade cryptoassets through recognisable interfaces, as the offering is integrated with the bank’s existing platforms.
“Digital assets are a foundational element of the evolution in financial services,” said Bill Winters, group chief executive of Standard Chartered.
“They’re integral to enabling new pathways for innovation, greater inclusion and growth across the industry. As client demand accelerates further, we want to offer clients a route to transact, trade and manage digital asset risk safely and efficiently within regulatory requirements.”
The bank has said that the launch follows a growing industry interest in regulated digital asset solutions and is expected to address challenges faced by institutional clients seeking to explore the crypto space.
Tony Hall, global head of trading and XVA, markets, at Standard Chartered, said: “We are applying our global expertise, infrastructure and risk management frameworks that our clients trust to the digital assets space.”
The announcement marks a further development in the digital asset space for Standard Chartered in recent months. In December 2024, the bank was named a strategic partner ahead of the launch of GFO-X in Q1 2025, the UK’s first regulated and centrally cleared trading venue dedicated to digital asset derivatives.
ABN AMRO Clearing, IMC and Virtu Financial were also announced as partners with the trading venue, in a bid to grow the institutional digital asset index futures and options market.