Standard Chartered Makes Bold Move Into Singapore’s Stablecoin Market With Strategic Partnership

Big banks finally wake up to crypto—just as retail traders get bored.

Standard Chartered just placed its bet on stablecoins, teaming up with a major player in Singapore's digital asset space. Because nothing says 'innovation' like a 160-year-old bank dipping its toes into blockchain.

Why Singapore? The city-state's regulator-friendly stance makes it a sandbox for institutional crypto experiments. And with MAS keeping a tight leash, banks get to play with digital assets without spooking shareholders.

The partnership signals growing institutional FOMO—better late than never for legacy finance. But let's be real: this is about capturing corporate treasury flows, not empowering decentralized finance.

One thing's certain: when traditional banks start 'innovating,' grab your popcorn. The gap between crypto-native solutions and bank-approved blockchain will be... entertaining.

Standard Chartered Has Partnered Up With DCS On Stablecoins

As revealed in a press release, Standard Chartered is collaborating with DCS Card Center as the banking partner for DeCard, a credit card that enables users to make stablecoin transactions.

DCS Card Center, formerly known as Diners Club Singapore, is a global payments provider situated in Singapore. It backs the DeCard credit card, described as “a next-gen card brand built for seamless stablecoin spending in the real world.”

The company is now turning to Standard Chartered’s infrastructure to support DeCard’s growing userbase. Headquartered in the UK, Standard Chartered is a major global banking institution operating in 54 markets, including Singapore.

The bank has been making strides in the digital asset sector recently. In July, the institution became the first of its stature to launch spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading desks for institutional investors. Last month, it also partnered up with cryptocurrency exchange OKX in the European Economic Area (EEA).

The collaboration with DCS isn’t Standard Chartered’s first foray into stablecoins, either, as the bank formed a joint venture with Animoca Brands and Hong Kong Telecom back in August to apply for a stablecoin issuer license in Hong Kong.

Stablecoins, digital assets pegged to a fiat currency, have increasingly been becoming popular around the world, as they offer a faster and more transparent alternative to traditional transactions.

In the partnership with DCS, Standard Chartered will provide banking and financial services to DeCard across a range of domains, including fiat and stablecoin settlements.

Dhiraj Bajaj, the bank’s Global Head of TB FI Sales, said:

This partnership is in line with our continued efforts to offer banking solutions for innovative Fintech partners and is central to our strategy of supporting clients in navigating the evolving digital assets space.

According to the press release, Standard Chartered’s API infrastructure will also allow DCS to link VIRTUAL accounts to DeCard holders, making it possible for immediate identification and transaction reconciliation across multiple channels.

Currently, Standard Chartered and DCS are rolling out the collaboration only in Singapore, but expansion in other key markets is planned. It’s unknown, however, which markets exactly the service will make its way to next.

While stablecoins have been gaining more adoption, growth in their market cap is starting to cool down, as CryptoQuant community analyst Maartunn has pointed out in an X post.

From the above chart, it’s visible that the 60-day change in the market cap of USDT, the largest of the fiat-tied cryptocurrencies, was witnessing sharp growth earlier in the year, but recently, it has shown a turnaround. “After months of growth, total stablecoin market cap is now trending downward—a potential signal of cooling liquidity,” noted Maartunn.

Bitcoin Price

At the time of writing, Bitcoin is floating around $104,000, down 1% over the last 24 hours.