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Standard Chartered

Institution · GSIB

Standard Chartered is the GSIB with the deepest APAC and emerging-markets footprint among banks active in tokenisation, and the one that has gone furthest in standing up regulated digital-asset infrastructure outside the parent bank's own balance sheet through Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets. The institution is a founding shareholder in Partior alongside JPMorgan and DBS, sits on the bank panels of Project Guardian (Singapore), Project Ensemble (Hong Kong) and Project Agorá at the BIS layer, and has been a recurring name in the offshore-RMB stablecoin design conversation in Hong Kong. For an APAC operator, Standard Chartered is the GSIB whose tokenisation perimeter spans the most regulated wrappers across the most jurisdictions, and the bank whose internal architecture most clearly separates principal banking activity from third-party digital-asset custody and trading.

Tokenisation positioning

Two design choices distinguish the bank’s posture. First, the principal banking franchise’s tokenisation activity (interbank settlement, tokenised deposits, wholesale-CBDC pilots) is run inside the existing banking perimeter and on shared multi-bank rails, with Partior the most-cited example. Second, client-facing institutional digital-asset activity (custody and trading of crypto-assets, including tokenised products) has been placed in majority-owned but legally separate subsidiaries (Zodia Custody, Zodia Markets), each operating under its own regulated wrapper. That split keeps the principal bank’s prudential posture clean while letting the group serve institutional clients who need digital-asset custody and execution under regulated venues.

The bank has been more aggressive than US GSIB peers on digital-asset adjacencies as a matter of strategy. The visible signals include the early commitment to a multi-bank tokenised settlement network (Partior), the spin-up of Zodia Custody as an independently capitalised joint venture, and recurring appearance on the offshore-RMB stablecoin shortlists circulating around the HKMA licensing perimeter. The bank’s APAC and EM client base is the structural reason, since cross-border corporate flows in and out of Hong Kong, Singapore, Korea, India, Indonesia and the UAE are the volume base on which tokenised cash and tokenised trade-finance economics actually clear.

Named products and pilots

  • Partior. The cross-bank interbank settlement network founded with JPMorgan and DBS, originally launched on the ConsenSys Quorum permissioned ledger. Standard Chartered is a founding shareholder and a settlement participant. Partior is the canonical worked example of multi-bank tokenised cash for cross-border wholesale flows.
  • Ant Whale tokenised deposits. A production (not pilot) tokenised-deposit rail launched with Ant International in December 2025, live in HKD, CNH, USD and SGD across the bank’s Hong Kong and Singapore subsidiaries. The launch use case is Ant International’s own intragroup treasury, with 24/7 movement between entities globally; the 4-currency APAC depth on a single platform is the most distinctive piece. See SC + Ant Whale tokenised deposit.
  • Project Guardian (MAS-led). Standard Chartered has been named on multiple workstreams; the consolidated workstream-by-workstream mandate is not publicly disclosed.
  • Project Ensemble (HKMA-led). Standard Chartered has been named among the participating banks in the wholesale CBDC and tokenisation sandbox.
  • Project Agorá. Standard Chartered is among the commercial bank participants in the BIS-coordinated cross-border tokenised-correspondent-banking design study, alongside other GSIBs and the 7 participating central banks.
  • Circle USDC integration. Standard Chartered and circle launched integrated USDC minting and redemption inside the bank’s existing client onboarding in July 2026, the first global systemically important bank (G-SIB) to offer the service natively rather than routing clients to a separate Circle relationship.
  • Anchorpoint Financial. The Standard Chartered (Hong Kong) joint venture with HKT and Animoca was awarded one of the first 2 Hong Kong Stablecoins Ordinance issuer licences in April 2026, alongside HSBC. Anchorpoint opened beta access to its HKDAP (Hong Kong dollar at par) stablecoin on 12 Aug 2026, with HashKey Exchange and OSL Group as authorised distributors; HashKey completed the first mint-and-redeem transaction. The beta is limited to institutional and professional-investor users, with retail access targeted for late 2026, and the currency scope beyond HKD (whether extending to offshore CNH) is still undisclosed. See HK Stablecoins Ordinance and Anchorpoint Financial.
  • Offshore-RMB stablecoin design space. Standard Chartered has been a recurring name in the public conversation around HKD and offshore-RMB stablecoin issuance under the HKMA Stablecoins Ordinance regime. As of late 2025, the consolidated picture of which entity in which jurisdiction would issue, and on which ledger, is not publicly disclosed.
  • Zodia Custody. Institutional-grade digital-asset custody venture, originally launched with Northern Trust as a partner; co-investors have included SBI and Northern Trust. Operates under FCA registration in the UK and has progressed through MAS licensing in Singapore, with separate regulated entities in other markets as required.
  • Zodia Markets. Institutional digital-asset trading and OTC franchise, structured as a separate legal entity from Zodia Custody.
  • Swift 24/7 ledger interoperability. Standard Chartered and HSBC executed the first live cross-bank tokenised-deposit transfer on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger on 19 Aug 2026, the first transaction to move tokenised deposits between two different banks’ platforms rather than within a single bank’s own rail. Both banks are also EnsembleX participants under Project Ensemble; whether this Swift-ledger interop runs alongside or eventually converges with EnsembleX has not been disclosed.
  • Digital bond issuance (Euroclear D-FMI). Standard Chartered issued a 3-year, $200m digitally native floating-rate note on Euroclear’s D-FMI platform on 20 Aug 2026, the first G-SIB and first UK issuer to do so on that platform, with admission to trading on the London Stock Exchange’s International Securities Market pending. The bank acted as sole dealer, having previously been Joint Lead Manager on Emirates NBD’s and Sole Lead Manager on Doha Bank’s D-FMI issuances; this is Standard Chartered’s first named move into tokenised-bond issuance, distinct from its tokenised-deposit and stablecoin activity above.
  • BlackRock HKD Digital Liquidity Fund. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission authorised BlackRock’s first tokenised offering in Hong Kong and APAC on 11 Sep 2026, a Hong Kong dollar money-market fund holding short-term government bills and deposits. Standard Chartered acts as custodian, fund administrator and trustee, and separately manages the tokenisation integration; investors can subscribe and redeem using fiat, tokenised deposits, or HKDAP, the Anchorpoint-issued stablecoin, the first commercial use of a HKMA-licensed stablecoin outside its own institutional beta. Standard Chartered has flagged plans to extend the same tokenised subscription and settlement service to other asset managers in Q4 2026. See Anchorpoint Financial.
  • Digital-asset trading and prime brokerage. Standard Chartered’s UK branch executed its first digital-asset prime brokerage trades with LMAX Group on 1 Jul 2026, spot Bitcoin and Ether with T+1 settlement through LMAX Digital’s regulated venue, settled via the bank’s custody platform in the Dubai International Financial Centre. The bank separately partnered with crypto-market maker B2C2 on 11 Feb 2026 for institutional liquidity connectivity across spot and options markets, routed through Standard Chartered’s own banking and settlement rails. Both sit alongside Zodia Markets rather than inside it, a third, bank-branch-direct route into institutional crypto trading distinct from the Zodia joint-venture structure.

Institutional partnerships

Partior with JPMorgan and DBS is the most consequential cross-bank partnership in the franchise; the network’s value to Standard Chartered is partly in connecting its APAC and EM corridors into a multi-bank ledger that JPMorgan dollar flows already settle on. The Zodia Custody venture’s relationship with Northern Trust (originally a partner, subsequently a co-investor) and SBI brought a US trust-bank custody perspective and a Japanese securities-house distribution channel into the same vehicle.

On the asset-management side, the bank has appeared as a counterparty across several tokenised-fund workstreams in Singapore and Hong Kong, although the cross-manager mandate map is not publicly disclosed. There has been public reference to custody-side cooperation work with Bank of America in the institutional digital-asset space; the precise scope and current status of that arrangement is not publicly disclosed and is flagged below.

Regulatory perimeter

Standard Chartered’s home prudential supervisor is the UK’s Prudential Regulation Authority, with conduct supervision by the Financial Conduct Authority. The bank operates Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Limited as a locally incorporated subsidiary supervised by HKMA, and a large Singapore branch supervised by MAS, alongside locally regulated entities in Korea, India, Indonesia, and other markets.

The Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets entities operate under their own regulated wrappers in each jurisdiction. Zodia Custody is FCA-registered in the UK as a cryptoasset firm and has been progressing licences in MAS Singapore and other markets; Zodia Markets operates separately under jurisdiction-specific permissions.

For prudential capital treatment, Standard Chartered’s exposures to tokenised assets and unbacked crypto-assets sit under the basel sco60 cryptoasset standard. The targeted review of SCO60 endorsed by GHOS in March 2026 (see Basel Committee) is the single most relevant Basel-side process for the principal bank, particularly because Standard Chartered’s tokenised exposures are likely to span the Group 1a (tokenised traditional assets) tier and any Group 2 buckets relevant to its institutional digital-asset franchise.

Recent activity

  • 11 Sep 2026Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) authorised the BlackRock HKD Digital Liquidity Fund, BlackRock’s first tokenised offering in Hong Kong and APAC, with Standard Chartered acting as custodian, fund administrator and trustee and separately handling the tokenisation integration (Asia Asset Management; role detail via tokenizationinsight.com). Investors can subscribe and redeem using fiat, tokenised deposits, or HKDAP, marking the first commercial use of a HKMA-licensed stablecoin outside its own institutional beta; Standard Chartered has flagged a Q4 2026 extension of the same service to other asset managers. See Anchorpoint Financial.
  • 20 Aug 2026Standard Chartered issued a 3-year, $200m digitally native floating-rate note on Euroclear’s D-FMI platform, the first G-SIB and first UK issuer to do so on that platform, with London Stock Exchange International Securities Market admission pending (Ledger Insights). Usman Ahmad, formerly head of Standard Chartered’s own Zodia Markets, is now head of digital assets at Euroclear. This is the bank’s first disclosed move into tokenised-bond issuance, a distinct asset class from its existing tokenised-deposit and stablecoin activity.
  • 19 Aug 2026Standard Chartered and HSBC executed the first live tokenised-deposit transfer between two different banks’ platforms on Swift’s blockchain-based ledger, breaking the single-bank-silo pattern that has defined tokenised deposits to date (Ledger Insights; also Coindesk). Both banks are also EnsembleX participants; whether the Swift-ledger and EnsembleX interoperability efforts converge is undisclosed.
  • 12 Aug 2026Anchorpoint opened beta access to HKDAP, with HashKey Exchange and OSL Group as authorised distributors and HashKey completing the first mint-and-redeem transaction (Coindesk; also Ledger Insights). Access is limited to institutions, corporates and professional investors during the beta; retail rollout is targeted for late 2026. See Anchorpoint Financial.
  • 10 Aug 2026CEO Bill Winters disclosed on the bank’s Q2 earnings call that tokenised-deposit volumes have reached around $11bn in monthly run rate, “primarily from the e-CNY cross-border settlements on mBridge and our multicurrency work with various clients”, and that the bank handles roughly 20% of USDC on/off-ramp volume (Ledger Insights). The first publicly disclosed volume figure for the bank’s tokenised-deposit book as a whole, rather than a single-programme figure like the Ant Whale rail.
  • 23 Jul 2026Zodia Solutions, the custody-infrastructure spinout created in the May 2026 Zodia buyout, integrated with the TCS (Tata Consultancy Services) BaNCS securities platform used by Citi and JPMorgan, putting Standard Chartered-built custody technology inside the incumbent core securities stack of other banks; full detail on the Zodia Custody page (Ledger Insights).
  • 21 Jul 2026SC Ventures joined Digital Asset’s oversubscribed $355m funding round led by a16z crypto, alongside Shinhan Financial Group (Digital Asset). SC Ventures CEO Alex Manson framed the investment as conviction that “trusted, institutional-grade market infrastructure will be fundamental to enabling scaling digital asset adoption across regulated financial services”, which reads as an infrastructure bet on the Canton Network sitting alongside the bank’s existing Partior shareholding rather than replacing it. This is strategic positioning rather than an operational deployment; no Standard Chartered production workload on Canton has been disclosed.
  • 2 Jul 2026Standard Chartered and circle launched integrated USDC minting and redemption inside the bank’s existing client onboarding, the first global systemically important bank (G-SIB) to offer the service natively rather than routing clients to a separate Circle relationship (Circle press release). The key point is adoption friction, not new technology: eligible institutional clients get USDC mint and redeem without standing up a parallel Circle account, which is the kind of onboarding barrier that has slowed institutional stablecoin uptake more than the underlying rail itself.
  • 1 Jul 2026Standard Chartered’s UK branch executed its first digital-asset prime brokerage trades with LMAX Group, spot Bitcoin and Ether with T+1 settlement through LMAX Digital’s regulated venue, settled via the bank’s custody platform in the Dubai International Financial Centre. A distinct route into institutional crypto trading from the bank’s own branch network, sitting alongside Zodia Markets rather than inside it.
  • 18 May 2026Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures bought out the minority shareholders and noteholders in Zodia Custody, subject to regulatory approval, including co-founder Northern Trust, SBI, National Australia Bank and Emirates NBD (Ledger Insights). A new entity, Zodia Solutions, will provide digital-asset technology services to Standard Chartered and other bank investors, while the regulated custody activity itself folds into Standard Chartered’s Financing and Securities Services division. The move resolves an underlying conflict: the parent bank now offers digital-asset custody directly and had been competing with its own majority-owned subsidiary for the same clients.
  • 10 Apr 2026Anchorpoint Financial, the Standard Chartered (Hong Kong) + HKT + Animoca joint venture, was awarded one of the first 2 Hong Kong Stablecoins Ordinance issuer licences alongside HSBC (HSBC HK statement on the licence award covers the Anchorpoint co-licensing). The licence sits with the JV vehicle rather than with Standard Chartered (HK) directly, which is the recurring pattern the bank has used elsewhere (Zodia Custody, Zodia Markets) for digital-asset-adjacent activity that the bank wants to keep outside the principal banking perimeter. See HK Stablecoins Ordinance; Anchorpoint’s beta launch four months later is above.
  • 11 Feb 2026Standard Chartered’s Asia FinTech division partnered with crypto market maker B2C2 for institutional liquidity connectivity across spot and options crypto markets, routed through Standard Chartered’s own banking rails and settlement facilities rather than a Zodia entity. B2C2 group CEO Thomas Restout described Standard Chartered as an “ideal strategic counterpart” given its regulatory standing and institutional reach.
  • 18 Dec 2025Standard Chartered Hong Kong and Singapore subsidiaries launched a tokenised-deposit production rail on Ant International’s Whale platform, with HKD, CNH, USD, and SGD live (Ledger Insights). Production rather than pilot. The launch use case is Ant International’s own intragroup treasury, with 24/7 movement between intragroup entities globally. Mahesh Kini, Global Head of Cash Management, framed the launch around “just-in-time” liquidity and 24/7 treasury management. The 4-currency APAC depth on a single platform is the most distinctive piece. See SC + Ant Whale tokenised deposit and Ant International.
  • 13 Nov 2025Standard Chartered named as one of the participating banks in the EnsembleTX phase of Project Ensemble. Whether the Whale-issued HKD tokenised deposits settle through EnsembleTX or sit parallel to it is undisclosed.
  • Partior has continued to be one of the bank’s multi-bank tokenised-cash venues as of late 2025; specific volume and corridor data is not publicly disclosed. The Whale launch puts a parallel multi-currency rail alongside the Partior connection.
  • Zodia Custody has continued to add jurisdictions and clients as of late 2025; specific milestones are not publicly disclosed.

Open questions

  • The current Partior shareholder structure, settlement volumes, and supported currencies as of late 2025.
  • Anchorpoint’s reserve composition and disclosure cadence for HKDAP, and whether the beta’s HKD-only currency scope will extend to offshore CNH.
  • The current scope and status of the Bank of America custody cooperation referenced in earlier coverage; whether this remains live and whether it covers tokenised securities specifically.
  • The cross-manager mandate map for Standard Chartered’s role on tokenised authorised-fund and tokenised-MMF (money-market fund) products in Hong Kong and Singapore beyond the disclosed BlackRock mandate, and which asset managers take up the flagged Q4 2026 extension of the same subscription and settlement service.
  • Whether Zodia Custody’s regulated perimeter has expanded into tokenised-securities custody (as distinct from cryptoasset custody) under any jurisdiction’s framework.