Zodia Markets CEO Usman Ahmad departs, co-founder Nick Philpott named interim CEO

Zodia Markets co-founder and CEO Usman Ahmad has left the firm, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday. The firm’s other co-founder, Nick Philpott, who previously served as head of partnerships, was listed as interim chief executive officer on Zodia’s website.

Ahmad had led the institutional crypto firm since its inception in 2021, when it was founded as a joint venture between Standard Chartered’s venture capital arm SC Ventures and Hong Kong's OSL Group.

London-based Zodia Markets was spun up to serve as an institutional-grade crypto trading and investment platform, offering an over-the-counter brokerage, exchange platform, and stablecoin services. 

In recent months, Standard Chartered has moved to bring more crypto features in-house, including spot crypto trading. The global bank also launched a crypto custody unit under the Standard Chartered brand last year and has plans to roll out full prime brokerage this year.

Standard Chartered remains the majority owner of Zodia, though Bloomberg noted its stake was reduced from 84% to 60% as part of the startup’s latest funding round in the summer. The bank also maintains an ownership interest in Zodia Custody.

The $18.25 million Series A was led by Pharsalus Capital, with participation from Circle Ventures, The Operating Group, XVC Tech, Token Bay Capital, Human Capital, and other strategic investors.

Bloomberg reported that Ahmad’s departure occurred in early March.

Standard Chartered estimated the stablecoin and tokenized real-world assets market could reach $2 trillion by 2028, in an analysis report last year.