Standard Chartered is reportedly considering restructuring its majority-owned crypto custodian Zodia Custody, potentially folding its custody business into a division within its corporate and investment bank while maintaining Zodia as a standalone SaaS platform. This move aligns with broader trends where large banks like Morgan Stanley and BNY Mellon are internalizing digital asset custody services within their regulated banking frameworks.
Standard Chartered is reportedly weighing a restructuring of its majority-owned crypto custodian Zodia Custody, as large banks look to bring more digital asset infrastructure inside their core banking operations. The United Kingdom-based lender plans to fold Zodia’s crypto custody business into a division inside its corporate and investment bank that already offers similar services, while keeping Zodia operating as a standalone Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) platform for digital asset custody, according to people familiar with the matter.
An announcement on the restructuring could reportedly come as soon as this month. It is not yet clear whether Standard Chartered has opened negotiations with Zodia’s minority shareholders, which include Northern Trust, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank and SBI Holdings. The bank was an early mover into digital assets, setting up Zodia in 2020 with Northern Trust, and the custodian has since raised external capital and grown across seven offices in Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Standard Chartered has rapidly expanded its own digital asset footprint, reportedly exploring the launch of a crypto prime brokerage platform through its venture arm, SC Ventures, and rolling out institutional crypto trading in summer 2025. This reported rethink comes as other global banks take digital asset custody directly under regulated banking entities.
In February, Morgan Stanley applied for a US de novo national trust bank charter, which would allow it to custody certain digital assets and execute purchases, sales, swaps, transfers and staking services for clients within a bank-regulated framework. In October 2022, BNY Mellon launched a Digital Asset Custody platform in the US that lets selected clients hold and transfer Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) alongside traditional assets on a single platform, positioning the bank as a core provider of both conventional and tokenized asset servicing.
