- Zodia Custody, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, has launched in Singapore to provide digital assets custody services to financial institutions.
- Zodia Custody plans to be a pioneer for digital asset custody in Singapore.
Zodia Custody, Pioneering Digital Asset Custody in Singapore
Zodia Custody, a STAN-backed cryptocurrency storage provider, has launched a new digital asset custody company in Singapore.
The former managing director of BitGo, Kai Kano, is the CEO of the new company, Zodia Custody (Singapore) Pvt. Limited.
Zodia Custody plans to provide its digital asset custody services to financial institutions in Singapore.
Although digital asset custody is not yet a licensed activity, Zodia Custody has strategically positioned itself in Singapore pending the announcement of regulatory requirements for digital asset custodians.
“We want to be where there is a global financial center as soon as we have a regulatory roadmap that enables us to spend our dollars and invest in a market and that provides the assurance to our clients that we can operate there,” Zodia Custody CEO, Julian Sawyer told Coindesk.
Traditional financial institutions are now involved in meeting the demands of secure and advanced solutions for asset custody in light of the growing adoption of cryptocurrency worldwide.
This has led to the rising number of digital asset providers and custodians in crypto-friendly countries, especially in Asia, backed by traditional financial institutions.
Traditional banks are setting up subsidiaries and partnerships and seeking regulatory licenses worldwide in their plans for expansion and meeting market demand in the digital asset space. Financial institutions like Korea’s Hana Bank, France’s Societe Generale, Germany’s Deutsche Bank, and others are entirely in the business of providing digital asset services.
Like other subsidiaries and companies being launched into the digital asset sector, leveraging the influence of a traditional financial institution has its benefits. Zodia Custody’s influence in digital asset custody services was brought to fruition from a partnership between Standard Chartered and Northern Trust.
Both financial institutions established Zodia Custody through a strategic partnership that expressed their mutual interest in interacting with the digital asset industry.
Through Standard Chartered’s enormous brand reputation and influence in the finance ecosystem, Zodia Custody was able to harness the company’s influence to achieve its goals of expansion.
In May 2023, SC Ventures, the investment arm of Standard Chartered, led Zodia Custody’s latest funding round, which closed at $36 million.
SBI Holdings Limited, the crypto division of a Japanese conglomerate, SBI Japan, also participated in the funding round alongside other unnamed investors.
The crypto asset custodian’s plans for expansion have begun, with its global footprint extending beyond Singapore. Zodia Custody boasts branches in Luxembourg, Abu Dhabi, Ireland, U.K., and a pending application in Japan.
Standard Chartered-Ventures-backed digital asset marketplace Zodia Markets was granted an approval in principle to provide over-the-counter services in Abu Dhabi.
Standard Chartered is collaborating with the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and other financial platforms on Project Guardian, an initiative based on testing asset tokenization. According to Coindesk, Standard Chartered is developing an initial token offering for issuing asset-backed security tokens to be listed on the Singapore Exchange.
