Standard Chartered announced that its non-binding offer to acquire the remaining shares of its subsidiary, Zodia Custody, has been accepted by all minority shareholders and noteholders. Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
The London-based banking giant has held a majority stake in Zodia Custody since 2021, alongside institutional backers including Northern Trust, Emirates NBD, National Australia Bank, and SBI Holdings. Under the newly approved agreement, Zodia’s core cryptocurrency custody activities will be fully integrated into Standard Chartered’s internal Financing and Securities Services division. This merger streamlines the group’s digital asset operations and clears a direct regulatory path to launch native bank-grade crypto custody in premier markets like the UK and Australia.
While the asset-holding custody segment moves directly onto the bank’s primary balance sheet, the underlying technical infrastructure will be managed separately. Zodia’s institutional crypto platform is being spun off into a completely independent software-as-a-service (SaaS) entity named Zodia Solutions.
Operating under the bank’s venture capital arm, SC Ventures, Zodia Solutions will provide bank-grade infrastructure to global financial organizations seeking to launch digital asset offerings. The corporate reorganization marks a significant maturation phase for Wall Street banks: transitioning digital asset services out of peripheral, experimental sandboxes and directly into the core matrix of legacy banking infrastructure.
