News

The growing interest in digital assets as a recognized asset class continues unabated, and major players in the financial world are actively joining the game. For example, Standard Chartered, an international bank, has launched a service for trading bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) for its corporate and institutional clients.

The service is available through the bank's UK division and is primarily aimed at institutional investors, including corporations, investment funds, and asset managers.

Curiously, Standard Chartered did not bother with its own crypto exchange. Instead, they simply integrated bitcoin and ether trading directly into their banking system. Clients can trade cryptocurrencies through the same interfaces as on the foreign exchange market (FX), which is very convenient.

Another important point is the issue of asset storage. Standard Chartered offers customers the freedom of choice: they can entrust their digital assets to the bank's own custody services (or its subsidiary, Zod Custody), as well as to third-party trusted providers. This is a flexible approach that takes into account different needs and regulatory requirements.

However, the bank does not plan to stop at spot trading. In the near future, Standard Chartered intends to expand its cryptocurrency portfolio by adding non-deliverable forwards (NDF).

What about retail investors? Standard Chartered has no plans to expand the service to this segment yet. The representative of the bank clearly stated that all efforts and resources are aimed at serving the needs of corporate and institutional clients.

Nevertheless, the very fact of launching such a comprehensive service by a large international bank suggests that the institutionalization and legitimization of the digital asset market continues.