Business Business:Standard Chartered Bank on Tuesday said it will allow its institutional clients to trade bitcoin and ether through its UK branch. In this way, the bank has become the first global systemically important bank to provide such crypto services.
Some financial institutions have said that with bitcoin prices hitting record highs, US President Donald Trump’s pro-crypto stance has led them to see growing demand from clients for crypto products.
The bank said in a statement that institutional clients around the world, including corporates, investors and asset managers, will be able to trade spot crypto through Standard Chartered’s existing platform and will soon be offered non-deliverable forward trading as well.
Standard Chartered already offers crypto products, including trading, through two independent subsidiaries: Zodia Markets and Zodia Custody. A Standard Chartered spokesperson said Zodia Markets allows clients to trade more than 70 crypto assets.
