StanChart Launches Spot Crypto Trading
Posted by Colin Lambert. Last updated: July 16, 2025
Standard Chartered Bank is claiming a first with the launch of spot crypto trading services for its clients, through its UK branch, building on its existing services, which to date have largely revolved around providing custody.
Initially trading will be offered in spot bitcoin and ether against the dollar, however the bank says it plans to adding capabilities in non-deliverable forwards. “This makes Standard Chartered the first global systemically important bank to offer deliverable spot Cryptoasset trading for institutional clients including corporates, investors and asset managers,” the bank claims.
The bank adds the new service is fully integrated with Standard Chartered’s existing platforms, allowing institutional clients to access and trade cryptoassets through familiar FX interfaces. Clients can settle to their choice of custodian, including Standard Chartered’s digital assets custody solutions. The bank says operating its regulated framework, this offering “is uniquely positioned to remove many of the barriers institutional clients faces when entering the crypto space”. It also offers services through its ventures, Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets and digital asset tokenisation services, through another venture, Libeara.
“Digital assets are a foundational element of the evolution in financial services,” says 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.”
Tony Hall, global head of trading and XVA, Markets, at Standard Chartered, adds, “We are applying our global expertise, infrastructure and risk management frameworks that our clients trust to the digital assets space. With growing interest in regulated digital assets solutions, we are well positioned to meet client needs while capturing the opportunities in this space.”
The Full FX View
There should be little surprise that Standard Chartered has taken this step, since the early days of the crypto “institutionalisation” movement the bank has been in the leading group, most notably through ventures like Zodia, but it will be interesting to see how this plays out in the bank’s Markets business.
In answer to a question from The Full FX the bank says it “works with multiple liquidity partners” for its spot BTC and ETH offering. This suggests that rather than being a sole market maker in these pairs on its own platform, it downstreams liquidity from other players in the crypto space.
If that is the case then this helps the bank avoid what may prove to be significant regulatory obstacles going forward, while the products supported are spot, the shift to NDFs will move it into the derivatives space and brings more regulation into play – not least what still look like punitive Basel requirements.
There is also the question of trading experience and expertise. StanChart is one of the top EM FX banks in the world, but the nature of the crypto market, with its patchy liquidity and high retail participation, sets it apart from FX. If the FX business, more pertinently, the e-FX business, is streaming in these pairs, it will be interesting to see what the experience is like for both banks and customers in the coming months. A successful period will likely see other banks look to move into the space, probably led by players like Nomura, which has also invested in the crypto space from an early stage.
If, what we are seeing is really a question of white label liquidity provision then this stands out as a straight tech play designed to bring comfort to institutional players. We have heard a lot (for several years now) about the “institutionalisation” of crypto (which in itself is ironic given bitcoin was intended to bypass traditional finance), but the shift remains slow and the bigger focus on the technology – look at the increased noise around stablecoins and tokenisation.
If institutions are to really invest in cryptoassets, rather than use the technology for more efficient payments and risk management, then moves such as this by StanChart are needed. For all they may desire, and claim, most LPs in crypto are not facing the big investors, they are, if they are at the top end, dealing with hedge funds of all sizes, but mostly retail brokers/aggregators – this is also the case, I might add, in FX – and this is because those large investors want to trade OTC, often in tailored circumstances, and want minimal counterparty risk.
