UK Banking Giant Standard Chartered to Release Cryptocurrency Trading Desk: Report

The giant British multinational banking and financial services organization, StanChart, intends to release a cryptocurrency trading platform in Britain and Europe later this year. The initiative will come as part of the bank’s new technology arm.

• Founded in 1969, Standard Chartered is a British banking giant with nearly $1 trillion in assets under management as of 2020.
• According to a Reuters report from Wednesday, the institution has revealed plans to launch a digital asset brokerage and exchange platform in Europe and Britain. The project will serve the bank’s institutional clients.
• The platform will be jointly operated by a few entities. More specifically, SC Ventures has partnered with StanChart’s innovation arm and BC Technology Group, which operates the virtual asset exchange – OSL.
• Essentially, the new initiative will enable European institutional customers of the bank to trade bitcoin, ether, and other digital assets.

• “We have a strong conviction that digital assets are here to stay and will be adopted by the institutional market as a highly relevant asset class.” – commented SC Ventures’ Alex Manson.

• StanChart’s move comes after several bullish comments from the bank made in the past few years. In contrast to HSBC, which has blocked cryptocurrency transactions, Standard Chartered hinted it will release Bitcoin custodial services last year.
• The bank’s CEO, Bill Winters, also asserted that the adoption of digital assets is “inevitable” as the private sector and government-backed entities will have leading roles in the process.

Featured Image Courtesy of AsiaNews