Standard Chartered-Backed Zodia Custody Joins Ondo’s Global Markets Alliance – A Major Leap for Institutional Crypto Adoption
Institutional crypto just got a heavyweight endorsement.
Zodia Custody—the Standard Chartered-backed digital asset custodian—has joined Ondo Finance’s Global Markets Alliance, signaling another seismic shift toward traditional finance embracing blockchain infrastructure.
Why it matters: When banks play nice with DeFi, the rules change.
The partnership gives institutional investors a compliant bridge between regulated custody and on-chain capital markets—no more choosing between safety and yield. Ondo’s tokenized treasury products now get the gold-standard custody treatment, while Zodia taps into a booming $600M+ ecosystem (because even blockchain purists can’t ignore those APYs).
The cynical take: Nothing accelerates innovation like watching JPMorgan’s clients demand the same yields as degens.
Bottom line: The alliance proves crypto’s institutional infrastructure is finally catching up to its hype—just in time for the next bull run.
Why tokenization?
The Global Markets Alliance’s areas of focus across the real-world assets on-chain ecosystem includes tokenized stocks, exchange-traded funds, money market funds and private credit. RWA on-chain is a rapidly expanding market, with major players, including BlackRock, Franklin Templeton, and Fidelity Investments, driving adoption to the next level.
The key to growing tokenization lies in its feature that enables the bridging of traditional finance and blockchain, with real-world assets wrapped into tokens issued on the blockchain.
Investors taking positions with these assets benefit from 24/7 trading, fractional ownership and on-chain transparency and accessibility. With institutional clients eyeing the tokenization opportunity, major Wall Street banks have had no option but to consider launching their own tokenized assets initiatives.
Unlocking capital efficiency
Zodia, which also offers a staking solution, counts asset managers, banks, crypto natives, governments, hedge funds, and private wealth firms among its partners.
The platform recently launched Zodia Rewards, its opt-in token rewards program targeted for institutional clients. Clients can enjoy rewards on supported stablecoins, including USDC (USDC), Ethena USDe (USDE) and the Global Dollar Network.
“Stablecoins are being adopted far beyond crypto capital markets, emerging as a tool to complement traditional financial rails for cross-border payments. We see this value, and as a custodian, we want to play our part to help unlock further capital efficiencies,” Anoosh Arevshatian, chief product officer at Zodia Custody, said at the time.
