The venture division of the British bank Standard Chartered PLC, which is part of globally systemically important banks, is creating a cryptocurrency custodian, iHodl Russia has learned.
According to Standard Chartered Ventures Head, Alex Manson, 20 financial institutions have already expressed interest in a crypto-oriented product.
Although the custodian will be located in the UK, custody services for virtual assets will be available to clients from all over the world. In addition to bitcoin (EXANTE: Bitcoin), the bank's VC division also aims to make the custodian suitable for holding security tokens.
Manson says the decision to create a custodian followed due to the lack of services that can adequately protect millions of dollars in digital assets for institutional investors.
It is expected that the first pilot version will be ready by the end of this year.
iHodl earlier reported that the British bank took part in the $18 million funding round for Metaco, a cryptocurrency-focused custodian oriented on the institutional market.
Metaco also succeeded to attract investments in the Series A round from Giesecke + Devrient, the German-based security technology company and one of the main central bank infrastructure partners, Swiss Post, Swiss postal service and Zürcher Kantonalbank, the fourth largest bank in Switzerland.
Subscribe to our Telegram channel to stay up to date on the latest crypto and blockchain news.
Access more than 50 of the world's financial markets directly from your EXANTE account – including NASDAQ, London Stock Exchange and Tokyo Stock Exchange.