Standard Chartered will acquire Zodia Custody’s crypto business and integrate it into its digital asset infrastructure.
Crypto News
Standard Chartered’s non-binding offer to acquire the crypto custody business of Zodia Custody, its majority-owned subsidiary, has been accepted by shareholders and noteholders, the bank announced May 18. Operations will be folded directly into Standard Chartered's own digital asset infrastructure.
Zodia Custody will not disappear entirely after the deal closes. Its technology operations will continue as an independent entity called Zodia Solutions, established under SC Ventures, Standard Chartered's innovation arm. Zodia Solutions will provide what the companies described as "bank-grade infrastructure" to financial institutions expanding digital asset services, including Standard Chartered itself.
Margaret Harwood-Jones, global head of financing and securities services at Standard Chartered, said the acquisition would accelerate the growth of the bank's global digital asset custody portfolio. The bank said the transaction will "drive value by unlocking revenue and cost synergies." Existing custody clients will continue to receive services without disruption during the transition.
A Multi-Year Strategy Reaches Its Endpoint
Zodia Custody was co-founded by Standard Chartered and Northern Trust in 2020 as a regulated crypto custody platform for institutional investors. The subsidiary raised $36 million in 2023 and was in discussions for a further $50 million round as recently as late 2024. Several banking investors, including existing Zodia shareholders, will back the new Zodia Solutions entity.
Standard Chartered had been laying the groundwork for this consolidation since early 2025. The bank obtained a Luxembourg license to provide crypto custody directly under MiCA rules in January 2025. It then launched its own branded custody unit later that year, creating parallel infrastructure with Zodia. In April 2026, Bloomberg reported that the bank was weighing exactly this type of integration before the May 18 formal announcement.
The move reflects a broader shift among major banks toward owning crypto custody operations in-house. Morgan Stanley applied for a US de novo national trust bank charter in February 2026 to custody digital assets within a regulated banking framework. BNY Mellon launched its Digital Asset Custody platform in 2022, enabling selected clients to hold and transfer Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) alongside traditional assets on a single platform.
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