British banking giant Standard Chartered plans to launch an institutional crypto brokerage and exchange for the UK and European clients. The new platform is spearheaded as a joint venture between Standard Chartered’s innovation unit SC Ventures along with the parent company of the Hong Kong-regulated crypto exchange OSL, BC Group.
The platform will be based in the UK to target the European crypto market, and the joint venture is unnamed for now and is subjected to regulatory approval. This latest company is all set to provide traders with access to bitcoin, ether, and other digital assets. The company is all set to launch in the last quarter of 2021. Usman Ahmad, chief information officer of BC Group will be appointed as the CEO of the company and Nick Philpott will be the COO of the joint venture.
Alex Manson, head of SC Ventures told the media, “We have a strong conviction that digital assets are here to stay and will be adopted by the institutional market as a highly relevant asset class. The new company will provide a brokerage and exchange platform to enable safe adoption and trading by the world’s largest and most demanding investors.”
This latest move by Standard Chartered solidifies its position as a rival to some of the world’s biggest institutional crypto exchanges that include the likes of Gemini, BitGo, and London-based LMAX Digital. Additionally, both institutional and corporate investors have entered the crypto asset space this year as bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies saw a steep rise.