Standard Chartered | Crypto

Standard Chartered will provide digital asset custody for 21Shares, signaling deeper TradFi expansion into crypto and raising questions about Zodia Custody’s future role. Major bank Standard Chartered announced fund manager 21Shares has selected it as its digital asset custodian, potentially moving away from a crypto-native partner. According to a Monday announcement from Standard Chartered shared with Cointelegraph, the bank will provide crypto custody services to 21Shares, which offers multiple exchange-traded crypto products. Margaret Harwood-Jones, the bank’s global head of financing and securities services, said the collaboration allows them to “to extend our expertise into the fast-evolving digital asset ecosystem.” However, 21Shares already had a crypto-native custody partner. In late June 2024, the fund manager partnered with crypto-native custodian Zodia Custody to hold its assets. Zodia Custody was co-founded by Standard Chartered in 2020 and operated as a wholly owned subsidiary, indicating that th...

The $300 billion stablecoin market capitalization pushed DeFi into a “self-sustaining cycle” of growth, according to the investment bank’s head of research. Tokenized real-world assets (RWAs) may reach a cumulative value of $2 trillion in the next three years as more global capital and payments migrate onto more efficient blockchain rails, according to investment bank Standard Chartered. The bank said in a Thursday report shared with Cointelegraph that the “trustless” structure of decentralized finance (DeFi) is poised to challenge the dominance of traditional financial (TradFi) systems controlled by centralized entities. DeFi’s growing use in payments and investments may bolster non-stablecoin tokenized RWAs to a $2 trillion market capitalization by 2028, the investment bank predicts. Read more

The $19 billion market crash may be a buying opportunity as dust settles in the coming weeks, Standard Chartered’s Geoff Kendrick told Cointelegraph in an exclusive interview. Bitcoin may still be on track to reach $200,000 by the end of the year, even after a record $19 billion market liquidation and renewed tariff threats from US President Donald Trump, according to Standard Chartered’s global head of digital assets research, Geoff Kendrick. The crypto market experienced a record $19 billion liquidation event on the weekend of Oct. 10, which caused Bitcoin’s (BTC) price to dip to a four-month low of $104,000 by Friday, Cointelegraph reported at the time. As the dust settles after the massive liquidation event, investors may see it as a buying opportunity. This dynamic may fuel a Bitcoin rally to $200,000 by the end of 2025, Kendrick said. Despite the volatility, he remains confident that Bitcoin will rebound as markets stabilize. Read more

Standard Chartered forecasts more than $1 trillion may exit emerging market banks and flow into stablecoins in the next three years as crypto adoption grows. Multinational bank Standard Chartered predicted that more than $1 trillion may exit emerging market banks and flow into stablecoins by 2028 as demand for US dollar-pegged crypto assets accelerates.  In a Monday report, Standard Chartered’s Global Research department said it expects global stablecoin adoption to accelerate as payment networks and other core banking activities shift to the non-bank sector.  As stablecoins gain traction in emerging markets (EM), Standard Chartered noted that users might utilize stablecoins to access what’s essentially a US dollar-based account. “Stablecoin ownership has been more prevalent in EM than DM, suggesting that such diversification is also more likely in EM,” Standard Chartered said.  Read more

SC Ventures plans to launch a digital asset fund in 2026, with a focus on global digital asset investment opportunities. Update Sept. 16, 11:33 am UTC: This article has been updated to clarify that SC Ventures is launching a digital asset fund, not a crypto fund. Update Sept. 16, 1:38 pm UTC: This article has been updated to include comments from an SC Ventures representative. Standard Chartered’s venture arm is preparing to launch a $250 million digital asset investment fund in 2026, signaling growing institutional appetite for digital assets. Read more

Standard Chartered warns of risks as Bitcoin, Ethereum and Solana treasury companies face valuation crunch. The boom in digital asset treasury (DAT) companies — fueled by the success of Strategy’s Bitcoin-buying — has shone a spotlight on cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin, Ether and Solana. However, that spotlight has dimmed in recent weeks as the market net asset values (mNAVs) of many DATs collapsed, exposing smaller firms to growing risks, Standard Chartered warned Monday. In the world of DATs, mNAV measures the ratio of a company’s enterprise value to the value of its cryptocurrency holdings. An mNAV above 1 allows a firm to issue new shares and keep accumulating digital assets. Below that threshold, it becomes far harder — and less prudent — to expand holdings. Standard Chartered noted that several high-profile DATs have recently slipped below that critical level, effectively shutting off their ability to keep buying.  Read more

Standard Chartered has reported that Ethereum treasuries, relative to Bitcoin-focused peers, have been better placed as DATs have cooled, citing staking yields, funding costs, scale, and mNAV normalization amid consolidation. The post Ethereum Treasuries Set to Outperform Bitcoin and Solana as DAT Shakeout Looms: Standard Chartered appeared first on Cryptonews.

Ethereum treasury firms are poised to outperform Bitcoin rivals as staking yields boost sustainability, a Standard Chartered analyst predicts.

Standard Chartered is setting a $7,500 year-end price target for Ether, and argues ETH treasury companies make more sense than BTC alternatives.

Standard Chartered now sees ETH hitting $7,500 in 2025, fueled by record ETF and treasury buying, stablecoin growth and Ethereum network upgrades. Standard Chartered has raised its Ether price forecast for 2025 to $7,500, up from a previous $4,000 target, citing a surge in institutional buying and the accelerating adoption of stablecoins following recent US regulatory changes. In a report shared with Cointelegraph, the bank said Ether (ETH) treasury companies and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) have acquired 3.8% of all ETH in circulation since early June, almost double the fastest rate of Bitcoin accumulation by similar entities during the 2024 US election cycle. “A lot has changed since our last ETH forecast update in March,” Standard Chartered wrote. “The first strongly positive sign was significant industry engagement from the Ethereum Foundation and Etherialize, two of the organisations behind the Ethereum ecosystem,” it added. Read more

The US GENIUS Act may boost stablecoin adoption, but its ban on yield-bearing stablecoins could drive trillions into tokenized real-world assets. The landmark US GENIUS Act could serve as a major catalyst for stablecoin adoption both domestically and abroad. But rather than simply boosting demand for dollar-backed digital currencies, it may unintentionally push capital into the tokenization market as investors seek yield on their holdings. That was one of the key takeaways from a recent interview with Will Beeson, a former Standard Chartered executive and now founder and CEO of Uniform Labs, a developer of institutional liquidity solutions for tokenized financial markets. A central provision of the GENIUS Act is its blanket ban on yield-bearing stablecoins, which prevents holders from earning interest on their digital dollar balances. According to Beeson, this restriction will accelerate the flow of capital into tokenized real-world assets (RWAs). Read more

Standard Chartered’s Hong Kong arm and Animoca Brands have launched a joint venture, Anchorpoint Financial, to develop a licensed Hong Kong dollar stablecoin. The Hong Kong subsidiary of major bank Standard Chartered has partnered with Web3 software company Animoca Brands to develop a Hong Kong-dollar stablecoin. According to a Friday announcement from Animoca Brands, the two companies jointly established Anchorpoint Financial Limited in Hong Kong to apply for a local stablecoin issuer license. The shared subsidiary will be tasked with building a business model focused on issuing and advancing licensed stablecoins. Per the announcement, Anchorpoint Financial already indicated formal interest in obtaining a stablecoin license with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority on Aug. 1. This followed the regulator’s implementation of its new stablecoin framework through a six-month transition period with special rules. Read more

Corporations have accumulated 1% of all Ether since June, with Standard Chartered forecasting 10% ownership as institutional appetite for ETH continues to grow. Corporations are buying Ether at a faster pace than Bitcoin, signaling a shift in institutional interest toward the world’s second-largest cryptocurrency as it prepares to celebrate its 10th anniversary, according to a new report from Standard Chartered shared with Cointelegraph. Corporate cryptocurrency treasury firms have bought up 1% of the total Ether (ETH) supply since the beginning of June, the bank said in a Tuesday research report. Over the same period, Ether-focused treasury firms have doubled the pace of investments compared to their Bitcoin (BTC)-focused counterparts, helping ETH outperform Bitcoin’s price action, the report said. Read more

Standard Chartered has launched spot trading for Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) through its institutional crypto platform, expanding its presence in digital assets just as U.S. regulatory and investor attention turns sharply toward stablecoins. The launch follows a series of high-level meetings across Washington, New York, and Boston, where Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s Head of […] The post Standard Chartered expands crypto footprint amid stablecoin market boom appeared first on CryptoSlate.

The Bitcoin halving cycle is unlikely to hurt the BTC price in the second half of 2025 due to strong ETF and corporate buying, Standard Chartered forecasts. Global bank Standard Chartered is bullish on Bitcoin for the rest of the year, citing increasing corporate treasury buying and strong exchange-traded fund (ETF) inflows. Standard Chartered expects Bitcoin (BTC) to print new highs of $135,000 by the end of the third quarter and then break $200,000 by the end of the year, the bank’s digital asset research head, Geoff Kendrick, said in a Wednesday report shared with Cointelegraph. “Thanks to increased investor flows, we believe BTC has moved beyond the previous dynamic whereby prices fell 18 months after a ‘halving’ cycle,” Kendrick said, adding that the common halving trend would have led to price declines in September or October 2025. Read more

Standard Chartered projected that tokenization of real-world assets (RWAs) beyond stablecoins could accelerate significantly over the next five years, driven by regulatory progress and a sharper focus on high-impact use cases, according to a June 20 report shared with CryptoSlate. The bank’s report, titled “RWA Tokenisation — A Growth Opportunity,” highlighted that while stablecoins remain […] The post Standard Chartered forecasts surge tokenizing real-world assets beyond stablecoins appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Standard Chartered’s latest report warns that Solana may be a “one-trick pony,” with memecoin trading dominating its usage and now in decline. Layer-1 blockchain Solana may be evolving into a “one-trick pony” for memecoin generation and trading, according to a recent Standard Chartered report. According to a May 27 Standard Chartered research report shared with Cointelegraph, Solana “dominates in areas that demand high-volume, low-transaction-cost solutions” due to its design prioritizing fast and cheap transaction confirmation. The report suggested that this has had an unintended consequence: Standard Chartered said the memecoin frenzy served as a stress test for Solana’s scalability but came with drawbacks due to the volatility and speculative nature of such assets. As memecoin trading volumes decline, the bank warned that Solana may struggle to maintain momentum. Read more