Standard Chartered Extends Institutional Bitcoin and Ether Spot Trading to the UAE
Standard Chartered prolonged its deliverable Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) spot buying and selling to institutional shoppers in the United Arab Emirates on September 3, turning into the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to provide the service in the nation.
The providing runs by Standard Chartered DIFC, the financial institution’s arm in the Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC), which mentioned it’s the solely international financial institution at the moment offering institutional digital asset spot buying and selling in the area.
Built on the UK Launch
The launch provides commerce execution to a custody service the financial institution already runs in the UAE. The trades are deliverable, so shoppers take possession of the underlying Bitcoin and Ether at settlement, and they’ll settle by a custodian of their selection, together with Standard Chartered’s personal digital asset custody answer that went dwell in September 2024.
Trades run by the financial institution’s digital channels and sit inside its present platforms, letting shoppers entry the two property by the similar FX interfaces they already use. Standard Chartered DIFC is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA).
“The UAE has developed a transparent digital property regulatory framework that helps institutional participation and innovation,” mentioned Rola Abu Manneh, Chief Executive Officer for the UAE, Middle East and Pakistan at Standard Chartered. She mentioned pairing execution with custody, governance, and the financial institution’s international connectivity provides shoppers a extra built-in approach to take part in digital asset markets.
Standard Chartered first introduced institutional Bitcoin and Ether spot buying and selling by its UK department in July 2025, the first G-SIB to provide deliverable spot crypto buying and selling to institutional shoppers.
“DIFC offers a longtime platform for worldwide monetary establishments to deploy international capabilities throughout markets,” mentioned Christopher Parsons, Senior Executive Officer at Standard Chartered DIFC. He mentioned the association combines the financial institution’s international markets community with a regulated base for serving shoppers throughout the area.
A Wider UAE Digital Asset Push
The buying and selling service sits inside a broader digital asset technique that spans custody, buying and selling and tokenization by Standard Chartered’s Corporate and Investment Bank, with its ventures ecosystem reaching into Zodia Markets and Libeara.
The financial institution already lets institutional shoppers mint and redeem USDC straight by its DIFC platform, a service it constructed with Circle. SC Ventures, its innovation arm, has backed a $100 million digital asset three way partnership in the UAE with Japan’s SBI Holdings that targets market infrastructure, compliance instruments, DeFi and tokenization.
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