Standard Chartered has entered into definitive agreements to amass Zodia Custody, the institutional digital asset custodian it helped set up by its SC Ventures innovation arm. The transaction, introduced on 21 October 2026, will see Standard Chartered I H Limited purchase 100% of Zodia Custody Limited, the guardian of regulated working entities spanning Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg. Completion stays topic to regulatory approvals and customary closing circumstances.
Once built-in, Zodia Custody’s regulated enterprise will sit inside Standard Chartered’s Securities Services division alongside its current digital asset custody actions in the UAE and Luxembourg. The financial institution says the mix is meant to create a unified providing that covers each conventional and digital asset securities for institutional shoppers, eradicating the operational separation that has existed between the 2 strains.
The carve-out: Zodia Solutions
A notable structural characteristic of the deal is the concurrent separation of Zodia Custody’s software program {and professional} companies arm. That enterprise will likely be transferred to a newly established entity, Zodia Solutions, housed beneath SC Ventures somewhat than absorbed into the financial institution’s core. Zodia Solutions will proceed to offer bank-grade custody infrastructure to monetary establishments, together with Standard Chartered itself.
A consortium of financial institution traders will help Zodia Solutions, together with NAB Ventures, Northern Trust Corporation, SBI Ventures, Further Ventures (Q Studio), Emirates NBD, Investcorp’s Zodia Investments, and SC Ventures. The construction successfully preserves the seller relationship with third-party establishments whereas giving Standard Chartered full possession of the regulated custody entity. No monetary phrases for both the acquisition or the capitalisation of Zodia Solutions have been disclosed.
Ying Ying Tan, international head of securities companies and digital belongings at Standard Chartered, stated the deal “deepens our digital asset custody portfolio and reinforces our position as a leading provider of digital asset services globally, supported by the depth, breadth and global connectivity of an international cross-border bank.”
Market and regulatory context
The acquisition displays a broader consolidation pattern in institutional digital asset custody. As regulators in main jurisdictions have moved to make clear the therapy of crypto belongings held on behalf of shoppers, the custody layer has turn out to be a strategic precedence for tier-one banks somewhat than a speculative adjacency. In the EU, MiCA’s necessities for crypto-asset service supplier authorisation have accelerated demand for licensed custodians with established banking relationships. In Asia, Hong Kong’s VASP licensing regime and Singapore’s MAS framework have equally pushed institutional shoppers in direction of regulated, bank-affiliated counterparties.
Standard Chartered’s transfer brings regulated custody licences throughout 5 jurisdictions right into a single possession construction, which is a significant regulatory footprint. Few custodians of any sort can supply that breadth beneath one financial institution’s stability sheet, and the mix with a longtime securities companies enterprise creates a cross-sell alternative into the financial institution’s current institutional consumer base.
Competitors in the institutional custody area embrace Anchorage Digital, Copper and Coinbase Custody on the specialist finish, in addition to BNY Mellon and Citigroup, which have been constructing digital asset custody capabilities inside their very own securities companies companies. The Standard Chartered and Zodia Solutions mannequin, the place the software program platform stays accessible to third-party banks, is an try and seize infrastructure income past the financial institution’s personal custody shoppers.
Richard Clark, chief govt of Zodia Custody, famous that “custody is increasingly becoming part of the global banking landscape” as institutional adoption accelerates. The subsequent markers to observe are which jurisdictions grant regulatory approval first and the way shortly the mixed custody providing is dropped at marketplace for Securities Services shoppers.
AI stage 1 of 5: written by Darlyn Ho; AI helped with tone, construction or wording; edited and signed off by Mark Walker, Editorial Director. What the levels mean
