In a groundbreaking move, British bank Standard Chartered has started offering institutional spot trading for Bitcoin and Ethereum, becoming the first global systemically important bank to provide such services. This milestone allows the bank to grant institutional clients, such as asset managers, corporates, and institutional investors, direct access to BTC and ETH through its UK branch.
According to Reuters, the Chief Executive of Standard Chartered stated: “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.”
Banks involved in cryptocurrency services.
Several other banks have been involved in crypto in quite different ways, from custody services to tokenization and Exchange-Traded Funds (ETFs). US-based bank JPMorgan Chase launched JPM coin, a dollar-pegged stablecoin, in 2019. Goldman Sachs offers crypto derivatives in BTC and ETH futures and options trading. Bank of New York Mellon, or BNY Mellon, has BTC and ETH custody for institutional clients. UK-based HSBC Bank is also a part of providing digital asset services. The institution introduced tokenized gold trading in 2023, becoming the first global bank to offer such an asset to institutional investors using blockchain.
