All remaining minority shareholders accepted an acquisition offer from Standard Chartered, including Northern Trust, Japan's SBI Holdings, Emirates NBD, and National Australia Bank. Financial terms were not disclosed. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions.

The deal creates two distinct entities out of what was a single operation. Zodia Custody's client-facing business, covering safekeeping of digital assets for institutional investors, will be folded directly into Standard Chartered's CIB division. A separate company called Zodia Solutions will be established under SC Ventures, the bank's innovation arm, to license custody technology to third-party banks and fintechs as a software service. Readers following coverage elsewhere should note that Zodia Markets, the related crypto trading platform, is a separate business and is not part of this transaction.

Why Now

Standard Chartered founded Zodia Custody in late 2020 through SC Ventures and Northern Trust as an institutional-grade digital asset custodian aimed at serving large financial institutions entering the crypto space. Since then, the bank has steadily built competing capabilities inside its own walls. It launched internal crypto custody services out of Luxembourg in January 2025, then introduced spot Bitcoin and Ether trading for institutional clients in July 2025. The growing internal overlap with Zodia Custody's mandate made the subsidiary structure increasingly redundant. Bringing Zodia's custody operation inside the bank removes that duplication and places the service within a fully regulated banking environment rather than a venture-backed subsidiary.

Bloomberg first reported on 8 April 2026 that Standard Chartered was considering a full takeover of Zodia Custody, initially framing it as a potential partial merger into the bank's Digital Assets unit. The confirmed announcement came six weeks later.

The move fits a broader pattern at the bank. Standard Chartered structured its digital asset strategy around five areas: access, execution, custody, tokenisation, and interoperability. In January 2026, it set up a crypto prime brokerage unit inside SC Ventures. In May 2026, it acquired a stake in crypto market maker GSR at a valuation above $1 billion. SC Ventures is also raising a $250 million digital assets fund targeting investors in the Middle East and North Africa, focused on tokenisation and blockchain infrastructure.

Market Context

The timing reflects conditions across the institutional custody sector. The global market for digital asset custody is currently valued at roughly $793 billion and is projected to reach $6.07 trillion by 2036, according to Meticulous Research. The software and platform segment of the custody provider market sits at approximately $3.69 billion in 2026, with a compound annual growth rate of around 13 percent through 2032, per Research and Markets. Industry observers have noted growing pressure on large banks to scale institutional crypto services while keeping tighter control of risk and compliance, a dynamic that has contributed to consolidation activity across the sector, though this characterisation reflects editorial framing rather than a uniformly sourced industry-wide trend.

At the time of the deal, Zodia Custody operated seven offices across London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Singapore, the UAE, Sydney, and Hong Kong, supported more than 75 digital assets, and employed around 150 people. It held regulatory registrations under the UK Financial Conduct Authority, Luxembourg's MiCA framework (MiCA is the European Union's Markets in Crypto-Assets regulation), and authorities in Hong Kong and Singapore. The company had previously raised a $36 million Series A led by SBI Holdings.

Regional Implications

For clients and institutions in the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia, the structural change carries practical weight. In the UAE, Zodia had already acquired Tungsten Custody Solutions, which holds a licence from the Abu Dhabi Global Market (ADGM). That entity and its regulatory relationships now sit within Standard Chartered's consolidated operation. Zodia Markets, the separate crypto trading platform that is not part of this transaction, had independently been using its Abu Dhabi presence as a base for planned expansion into Saudi Arabia, Oman, Bahrain, Qatar, and Kuwait. That expansion is a feature of Standard Chartered's broader regional ecosystem and is not a consequence of the custody acquisition announced today.

In Africa, Zodia Markets had named Nigeria, Kenya, and South Africa as explicit targets, relying on Standard Chartered's existing branch network in those countries. Those plans predate this transaction and belong to Zodia Markets as a distinct entity not party to the deal. Absorbing custody capabilities into the CIB division could nonetheless accelerate the availability of institutional-grade crypto infrastructure to corporate clients through those same branches. In South Asia, Standard Chartered operates significant corporate banking businesses in India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Sri Lanka. Having custody in-house rather than in a separately governed entity gives the bank more direct control over compliance positioning in markets where crypto regulatory frameworks are still being finalised. Separately, SC Ventures and SBI Holdings had entered a strategic alliance to co-invest in South Asia, Middle East, and Africa opportunities; Zodia Solutions, the new technology spin-off, could serve as infrastructure for SBI-backed banks and fintechs in the subcontinent, a role that distinguishes it from the absorbed custody business.

Banks and fintechs in these regions that were exploring white-label custody partnerships with Zodia should note that the SaaS licensing pipeline continues through Zodia Solutions. The technology business is not being absorbed.

What Comes Next

The transaction still requires sign-off from regulators across multiple jurisdictions before it closes. Standard Chartered has not issued a public executive statement on the deal beyond the regulatory disclosure confirmed by Bloomberg. As custody increasingly moves inside systemically important banks rather than sitting in dedicated crypto-native firms, the deal sets a reference point for regulatory audiences in key emerging markets. India's Reserve Bank, Nigeria's Securities and Exchange Commission, and South Africa's Financial Sector Conduct Authority are each finalising institutional crypto frameworks in which this model of bank-led custody consolidation may prove instructive.