Standard Chartered Jumps Into Crypto: Institutional Bitcoin & Ethereum Trading Goes Live
Wall Street’s latest crypto convert just flipped the switch. Standard Chartered—the $730 billion London-based banking giant—has officially opened institutional trading desks for Bitcoin and Ethereum. No more side-door OTC deals or custody workarounds.
Why This Matters:
When a 160-year-old bank starts clearing spot crypto trades, the 'digital gold' narrative gets harder to dismiss. Especially when they’re doing it through a regulated entity rather than a crypto subsidiary shell game. (Looking at you, silver-toothed private wealth managers.)
The Fine Print:
Expect tiered liquidity pools and API integrations that’ll make hedge funds drool. Minimum ticket sizes? Probably six figures. But for pension funds and family offices sitting on the sidelines, this is the permissioned ramp they’ve been waiting for.
The Bottom Line:
Another brick in the institutional dam crumbles. Now watch the usual suspects at BlackRock start whispering about ‘portfolio diversification’ while quietly front-running everyone. The irony? Banks spent years mocking crypto—now they’re racing to custody it before their competitors do.
Too big to fail?
Standard Chartered's entry to spot crypto trading is "unequivocally validating the growing demand from traditional finance for regulated, deliverable crypto trading solutions," Charmaine Tam, head of OTC sales and trading at Hex Trust, a digital asset financial institution based in Hong Kong, told Decrypt.
Tam pointed to a "convergence of TradFi and digital assets," which shows how the sector's ecosystem has matured as established players like Standard Chartered "tailor their offerings" to meet the sophisticated needs of institutional clients.
While the launch marks a first for a bank of its stature, Tam views the MOVE as part of a broader shift among institutions exploring crypto, seeking "diverse ways to manage risk and gain exposure.”
The development signals a more decisive direction and momentum toward "full integration within mainstream financial infrastructure,” Tam claimed.
Comparing it to brokerage platforms such as Robinhood, Tam said the offering “complements existing spot BTC or ETH ETFs by offering an additional, direct trading rail” for institutions, through infrastructure they’re already familiar with.
While retail platforms “opened the door for millions,” an offering from Standard Chartered, by contrast, “paves the way for deeper institutional confidence,” Tam said.
Tam sees particular significance in Standard Chartered’s status as a “G-SIB,” or Global Systemically Important Bank.
StanChart is one of just 29 such institutions designated by the Financial Stability Board as ostensibly “too big to fail,” meaning their collapse could threaten global financial stability.
These institutions face the world's toughest banking rules, including extra capital requirements, loss-absorbing buffers, and strict crisis planning.
Decrypt has approached Standard Chartered for comment on how the service differs from retail platforms, what prompted the launch, and whether it plans to expand to other assets or derivatives.
