Banking Giant Standard Chartered’s Crypto Custodian in Talks for $50,000,000 Capital Raise: Report

A crypto custody business that’s majority-owned by the world’s 44th-largest bank is reportedly planning to raise more capital.

Bloomberg reports that Zodia Custody Ltd, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, is in talks to secure approximately $50 million in funding from investors.

According to Zodia Custody chief executive Julian Sawyer, the capital raise will help fund the expansion of the business into new countries and territories while widening the product range.

Zodia Custody currently serves 15 jurisdictions and has offices in London, Dublin, Luxembourg, Sydney, Singapore, Hong Kong and Tokyo. The digital asset custodian supports over 50 crypto assets and this includes Bitcoin ( BTC ), Ethereum ( ETH ), XRP , Solana ( SOL ), Cardano ( ADA ), BNB , Polkadot ( DOT ), Tether ( USDT ) and USD Coin ( USDC ).

Besides the majority owner Standard Chartered, Zodia’s other backers include the National Australia Bank and financial services firm Northern Trust Corp. Last year, Zodia Custody raised $36 million in a round by Japanese financial services giant SBI Group. Zodia Custody is now reportedly interested in attracting a more diverse set of investors outside of large financial firms.

In December of 2023, the Ripple Labs-owned digital assets infrastructure provider Metaco announced integration with Zodia Custody.

“The integration enables institutions to access Zodia Custody’s bank-grade custody solutions through Metaco. The expanded collaboration between the two companies follows a longstanding strategic relationship and is designed to further build out networked options for institutional investors, enabling them to gain additional secure, reliable and compliant end-to-end digital asset service capabilities.”

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