Standard Chartered plans Singapore custody for crypto, stablecoins and tokenized assets

Standard Chartered plans to offer custody in Singapore for selected cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, according to CoinDesk. The digital-asset custody business already reaches financial hubs including the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.

The Singapore service would sit inside Standard Chartered's financing and securities-services division rather than operate as a retail crypto product, the bank said Thursday. It would serve institutional clients and accredited investor corporate clients, subject to applicable regulatory requirements.

"As adoption grows, we are seeing institutional use cases and client interest emerge around tokenised funds, ETFs and precious metals, as clients look for more efficient ways to hold, transfer and mobilise assets," Ying Ying Tan, the bank's global head of digital assets and securities services, told CoinDesk by email. "Our Singapore launch further strengthens our ability to help clients bridge traditional and digital markets through secure, regulated and bank-grade infrastructure," she added.

The bank did not specify which cryptocurrencies, stablecoins or tokenized assets it plans to support, or when the service will begin. It said the planned offering would support clients across the asset lifecycle, from safeguarding traditional assets to issuing and holding tokenized versions of them. Patrick Lee, the bank's Singapore chief executive, said it sees rising institutional demand for trusted infrastructure to move and safeguard tokenized assets.

CoinDesk noted the move is not a first for a global bank, citing BNY's expansion of its digital-asset custody platform to include USDC custody and minting, with staking added later.

Standard Chartered has been building the custody business through its arm Zodia Custody, which it founded with Northern Trust and agreed in May to buy the rest of. Last month it began offering institutional spot bitcoin and ether trading through its Dubai branch's foreign-exchange platform. In Hong Kong, its HKMA-licensed HKDAP stablecoin is in beta, and in August it took part in what this publication reported as the first live cross-border tokenized-deposit transfer on Swift's ledger, with HSBC.