Standard Chartered, the British multinational bank, is said to be making plans to establish a prime brokerage service for cryptocurrency trading.
According to sources familiar with the matter cited by Bloomberg, the banking giant, with total assets of $849 billion, will run this new venture under its wholly owned venture capital unit SC Ventures.
Discussions are still in the early stages, and the exact launch date of the service is yet to be determined.
Last month, SC Ventures announced on LinkedIn that it is working on a digital asset project called Project37C to meet the increasing demand from institutions for digital asset opportunities. The financial services firm based in Singapore did not disclose any external partners for this joint venture.
“This joint venture will complement the wider Standard Chartered digital asset ecosystem, covering custody, tokenization, and market access, aiming to bring institutional-grade innovation to this rapidly evolving sector.”
The report suggests that housing this new business within SC Ventures could help Standard Chartered avoid the stringent capital requirements currently imposed on banks for digital assets.
Under the Basel III regulations for the global banking industry, banks face a 1,250% risk charge for exposure to unsecured crypto assets like Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH).
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