The international bank, Standard Chartered, plans to establish a cryptocurrency brokerage service, breaking into this constantly expanding and growing digital medium. The London-based bank, which operates in countries across Asia and the Middle East, is taking a significant step towards integrating the traditional financial sector.
According to international media reports, the service will allow only corporate clients to access digital assets. The bank also reported that its new service will be part of its wholly owned venture capital unit, SC Ventures, which could be a measure to avoid adopting the strict capital requirements currently in place at other financial institutions.
Essentially, the Standard Chartered cryptocurrency brokerage aims to capitalize on the exponential growth of this sector by offering services that facilitate the entry of more institutional capital, aligning with other major financial institutions like Morgan Stanley, which have also begun to explore this new digital environment. Additionally, some banks in the United States are taking steps towards cryptocurrencies following Donald Trump’s presidency, during which he has expressed interest in this industry.
The role of SC Ventures and Basel III rules
SC Ventures, the innovation, investment, and enterprise creation unit of Standard Chartered, announced last December, via a LinkedIn post, that it is developing, together with the bank, a digital assets company called Project37C, which will offer custody, tokenization, and market access. Furthermore, it explained that it will be a lightweight financing and market platform, positively adapting to Basel III standards. At that time, the names of external partners were kept anonymous, and details of the project, which are still expected to be revealed, were reserved.
Regarding the Basel rules, digital assets like Bitcoin or Ethereum present a very high-risk profile, and therefore, banks are required to maintain an extremely high capital reserve, with a risk weighting of 1,250% for every dollar in “unpermitted” crypto assets on their balance sheets.
However, Standard Chartered will use its innovation arm, SC Ventures, and Project37C, to maintain long-term profitability, acting as a broker and not appearing as the owner of the assets. On the other hand, it also plans to implement a more flexible structure that complies with the necessary compliance and security standards.
So far, all that is known is that SC Ventures is leading the creation of Standard Chartered’s new cryptocurrency brokerage service. In addition to this, it has reported that last year it proposed raising up to $250 million for a new fund dedicated exclusively to investments in the crypto ecosystem during 2026.
