Standard Chartered Agrees to Buy Zodia Custody

For five months, Standard Chartered’s offer for Zodia Custody was non-binding. Now the bank has signed.

The London-based bank said on 21 October that it has signed definitive agreements to buy 100% of Zodia Custody Limited, the parent of Zodia’s regulated custody companies in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, the United Arab Emirates and Luxembourg. The deal still needs regulatory approval and must meet customary closing conditions. No price was given; The Block reports that financial terms were not disclosed.

The Block says Zodia’s shareholders and noteholders accepted that offer in May, and that the bank’s plan is to bring Zodia’s regulated crypto custody operations in-house.

Custody goes into the bank; the software goes to a new company

The deal splits Zodia in two. Once it completes, the regulated custody business will be folded into Standard Chartered’s existing digital asset custody operations within its Securities Services arm. The bank says that will consolidate its custody businesses and drive value by “unlocking revenue synergies”, as part of a plan to offer institutional clients one service covering both traditional and digital asset securities.

Zodia’s software and professional services business goes elsewhere. It will move to Zodia Solutions, a new independent company set up under SC Ventures, the bank’s venture arm. Zodia Solutions will keep selling infrastructure to financial institutions launching digital asset services, Standard Chartered among them, and is backed by NAB Ventures, Northern Trust, SBI Ventures Asset, Q Studio (Further Ventures), Emirates NBD, Investcorp’s Zodia Investments and SC Ventures’ own Zodia Holdings. “Financial institutions are moving beyond digital asset pilots towards operating services at scale,” said Craig Perrin, chief executive of Zodia Solutions.

“The acquisition of Zodia Custody further deepens our digital asset custody portfolio and reinforces our position as a leading provider of digital asset services globally,” said Ying Ying Tan, the bank’s global head of securities services and digital assets. Richard Clark, Zodia Custody’s chief executive, said custody “is increasingly becoming part of the global banking landscape”. The Block notes that Clark, previously chief revenue officer, took over in September after Julian Sawyer stepped down.

Clients should see no change, the bank says

Standard Chartered says it expects no disruption to clients and that existing Zodia Custody clients will continue to be served as usual.

The deal comes as the bank widens its own crypto services. The Block reports that it plans to launch crypto custody in Singapore by the end of 2026. Earlier this month, TSN reported that it had begun holding Ripple’s RLUSD stablecoin for institutions and had let affluent clients in the UAE trade bitcoin and ether from their bank accounts.

For a bank listed in London and Hong Kong, the deal’s footprint is notably Asian, Middle Eastern and European: none of the regulated Zodia companies named in the release is in Britain. Luxembourg is the European base. The Block reports that Zodia won a payment institution licence there in June, letting it offer regulated stablecoin custody and transfer services across the EU.