Standard Chartered prepares crypto prime brokerage push: Bloomberg

Standard Chartered is reportedly preparing to set up a prime brokerage service for cryptocurrency trading.

The London-based bank will house the operation within its SC Ventures unit, its wholly owned venture capital and innovation unit, Bloomberg reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the matter who asked not to be identified because the deliberations are private.

According to the report, the structural decision places the business outside the bank’s core regulated entity, a move that may help Standard Chartered avoid having to absorb strict capital requirements applied to direct bank holdings of digital assets. Under current Basel III rules, banks must assign a 1,250% risk weight to exposures like Bitcoin, a charge more than three times the 400% weight for certain venture capital investments.

The prime brokerage plan follows a December LinkedIn post from SC Ventures detailing work on a digital-asset joint venture dubbed “Project37C.” That announcement described the project as a “light financing and markets platform” that would offer custody, tokenization, and market access. It did not name the initiative as a prime brokerage or identify external partners.

The Block reached out to Standard Chartered for comment.

Banks accelerate digital asset push

Standard Chartered’s preparations come as large banks increase their exposure to digital assets under a more permissive U.S. policy environment following President Donald Trump’s return to the White House. Several global lenders have moved from exploratory work to live products across trading, custody, and blockchain-based payments.

JPMorgan Chase & Co., which began offering blockchain-based deposit accounts in 2019, started rolling out its JPM Coin to institutional clients in November. Last month, the bank said it was considering offering cryptocurrency trading to its institutional clients, Bloomberg reported.

Morgan Stanley last week filed to launch exchange-traded funds tracking Bitcoin, Ether, and Solana, according to regulatory filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission, placing the firm alongside asset managers such as BlackRock and ARK Invest in the U.S. spot crypto ETF market.

Custody banks have also advanced tokenized money products. Bank of New York Mellon Corp., custodian of $57.8 trillion in assets, activated a tokenized deposit service for six institutional clients on Jan. 9, The Block previously reported.

Other global lenders have taken equity and partnership routes. Barclays earlier this month bought a stake in stablecoin startup Ubyx to explore tokenized money use cases, while HSBC plans to expand its tokenized deposit service to corporate clients in the U.S. and the United Arab Emirates in the first half of this year.