Standard Chartered has become the first global systemically important bank to offer digital asset spot trading to institutional clients.
The offering includes spot trading for Bitcoin (XBT/USD) and Ether (XET/USD) through the bank's UK branch and will soon add non-deliverable forwards trading.
The trading is fully integrated with Standard Chartered’s existing platforms, allowing institutional clients to access and trade cryptoassets through familiar FX interfaces. Clients can settle to their choice of custodian, including the bank's own service.
Bill Winters, group chief executive, Standard Chartered, says: “As client demand accelerates further, we want to offer clients a route to transact, trade and manage digital asset risk safely and efficiently within regulatory requirements.”
Standard Chartered has been an enthusiastic player in the digital asset market, recently unveiling a partnership with crypto exchange OKX on a collateral mirroring programme, enabling institutional clients to utilise cryptocurrencies and tokenised money market funds as off-exchange collateral for trading.
Earlier this year, the bank's head of digital assets Geoffrey Kendrick forecast that bitcoin could hit a high of $500,000 over the next three years.