Standard Chartered Signs Definitive Agreements to Acquire 100% of Zodia Custody

Standard Chartered Takes 100% of Zodia Custody

Standard Chartered moved on Wednesday to take full control of the custody business it helped create, signing definitive agreements to acquire 100% of Zodia Custody. Under the terms set out in Zodia Custody’s official announcement, the bank’s subsidiary Standard Chartered I H Limited will buy Zodia Custody UK Limited, the parent company of regulated operating entities in Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Luxembourg and the United Arab Emirates. The transaction remains subject to regulatory approvals and customary closing conditions. The bank has not disclosed the financial terms and has not given a revised completion date. Once the deal closes, Zodia’s regulated custody operations will fold into Standard Chartered’s Securities Services division, which already provides digital asset custody to institutional clients. The bank said the combination would let it consolidate existing custody businesses and put traditional securities services and digital asset custody under one institutional offering. Zodia’s shareholders and noteholders accepted a nonbinding offer from the bank on May 18, and the parties initially expected to finalize definitive agreements by the end of June, with completion targeted before the end of August. Both dates passed without a signed deal. The October 21 announcement confirms the agreement is now binding at the signing stage, though the bank has not explained the delay or identified which approvals remain outstanding. Standard Chartered co-founded Zodia Custody with Northern Trust in 2020, and the business later attracted investment from other financial institutions. Zodia built a regulated footprint across several financial centers in the years since. In June, the company obtained a Luxembourg license from the Commission de Surveillance du Secteur Financier covering regulated stablecoin custody and transfer services across the European Union, a payment institution authorization that sits alongside its existing Markets in Crypto Assets license for institutional clients handling electronic money tokens and other crypto assets.

Zodia Solutions Carves Out the Software Business

The deal does not move all of Zodia into the bank. Under the agreed structure, Standard Chartered takes over the regulated custody business, while Zodia’s software and professional services operations transfer to a separate company, Zodia Solutions, which will operate independently under SC Ventures, the bank’s venture and innovation arm. Zodia Solutions will keep supplying digital asset infrastructure to banks and other financial institutions, letting them establish custody and related operations without building every component internally, and Standard Chartered itself stays among its customers. The investors behind Zodia Solutions are Northern Trust, NAB Ventures, SBI Ventures, Emirates NBD, Further Ventures, Investcorp-linked Zodia Investments and SC Ventures-owned Zodia Holdings. Craig Perrin has been named chief executive of Zodia Solutions. Richard Clark, previously Zodia Custody’s chief revenue officer, now leads the custody company following the September departure of former CEO Julian Sawyer. Ying Tan, the bank’s global head of Securities Services and Digital Assets, said the acquisition would strengthen its custody portfolio, while Clark pointed to the pairing of Zodia’s specialist custody capabilities with the bank’s international operations. Existing custody clients will keep receiving services as usual during the transaction. The acquisition lands in the middle of an active October for the bank’s digital asset unit. On October 8, Standard Chartered announced plans to launch institutional crypto custody in Singapore for institutional and accredited corporate clients by the end of 2026, without naming the supported cryptocurrencies. It already runs custody operations in the UAE, Luxembourg and Hong Kong, and recently introduced Bitcoin and Ether trading for eligible professional investor clients in the UAE through an integrated arrangement for trading, custody and settlement, with Zodia Markets providing liquidity and execution.

Six Jurisdictions Must Clear the Deal

The binding agreement settles the structure but not the timeline. Approvals are required in six jurisdictions, the United Kingdom, Singapore, Hong Kong, Australia, Luxembourg and the UAE, and a custodian licensed in that many markets should expect a review that runs for months rather than weeks. What the parties have not provided matters as much as what they have: no financial terms, no revised completion date and no account of why the June and August targets slipped. If the deal clears, Standard Chartered will hold a regulated custody footprint spanning Asia-Pacific, the Middle East and Europe at a moment when global banks are pulling crypto infrastructure in-house rather than relying on external providers, letting institutions access securities services and digital asset custody under a single banking relationship.