Standard Chartered · Bitcoin Depot · United Arab Emirates · Bitcoin Magazine
Standard Chartered to Absorb Zodia Custody’s Core Business in Digital Asset Consolidation
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Standard Chartered announced Monday that its non-binding offer to acquire Zodia Custody, the digital asset custodian it co-founded in 2020.
Key facts
- The digital asset custody market currently exceeds $1 trillion in assets under custody and is projected to reach $7 trillion by 2035, growing at a compound annual rate of roughly 24%
- Peers have moved in the same direction: BNY Mellon launched its Digital Asset Custody platform in 2022, and Morgan Stanley applied for a national trust bank charter in early 2026 to bring crypto
- Standard Chartered announced Monday that its non-binding offer to acquire Zodia Custody, the digital asset custodian it co-founded in 2020
- Standard Chartered announced Monday that its non-binding offer to acquire Zodia Custody, the digital asset custodian it co-founded in 2020 through its innovation arm SC Ventures, has been accepted
Summary
The deal, subject to regulatory approvals, will fold Zodia’s regulated custody operations into Standard Chartered’s existing Financing and Securities Services business. Zodia was established alongside Northern Trust in late 2020, when regulatory uncertainty and reputational risk made it sensible for Standard Chartered to experiment with crypto custody through a separate entity. Standard Chartered had developed its own digital asset custody capabilities within its Corporate and Investment Bank, running two custody offerings that served overlapping institutional clients.