Stablecoins join crypto in Standard Chartered’s Singapore custody plan

Standard Chartered plans to hold selected stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets alongside cryptoassets in Singapore, the bank said Thursday.

The service is only available to institutional and accredited-investor corporate clients and is subject to applicable regulatory requirements.

Tokenized funds, ETFs and precious metals draw institutional interest

Standard Chartered Bank (Singapore) Limited made the announcement. Retail holders get no access.

Along with traditional asset servicing and tokenization, custody will be a part of the bank’s Financing & Securities Services business. The bank says that in one setup, a client could switch from holding regular securities to holding tokenized versions of those securities.

The release did not name any tokens or stablecoin issuers, and there’s no start date.

Institutions are showing growing interest in tokenized funds, ETFs, and precious metals, said Ying Ying Tan, who runs the bank’s digital assets and securities services globally. They want more efficient ways of holding, transferring, and mobilizing those assets, she said.

“Singapore is an important centre for financial innovation, with a strong institutional ecosystem and growing demand for trusted digital asset solutions,” said Patrick Lee, the bank’s CEO for Singapore and for ASEAN and South Asia.

“Robust infrastructure will be critical to supporting the secure movement, safekeeping, and servicing of tokenised assets at an institutional scale,” Lee added.

UAE, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong already host the bank’s digital asset safekeeping

Singapore joins the UAE, Hong Kong, and Luxembourg, where Standard Chartered already offers digital asset custody. Singapore is a leading financial and innovation hub in the bank’s global strategy, the bank said.

“Secure and regulated custody is a critical foundation of the digital asset ecosystem,” Ole Matthiessen, global head of transaction services and digital assets, said. He pointed to the bank’s status as a global systemically important bank as the safeguard that institutions want.

The bank will continue to invest in digital asset capabilities in key financial centers as client demand rises, said Matthiessen.

Standard Chartered’s crypto custody developed through Zodia Custody, which it set up with Northern Trust. The bank agreed in May to buy the rest of Zodia, pending regulatory approvals. Thursday’s release did not say if the deal had been finalized.

The bank’s UK unit has been processing deliverable spot bitcoin and ether trades for institutions since July 2025, while its Dubai arm began doing the same last month through its foreign-exchange platform.

Standard Chartered is also moving Singapore dollars in real time for Coinbase customers in Singapore, Cryptopolitan reported in December.

The Coinbase deal also covers trading, custody, staking, and lending and permits the bank’s institutional customers to settle crypto trades with any custodian, including the bank.