From Decrypt · By Jose Antonio Lanz
In brief
Standard Chartered launched direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for affluent UAE clients on Wednesday after receiving licensing approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
Eligible Professional Investor clients can buy and sell BTC and ETH through their existing bank accounts, with the bank handling custody and settlement in a closed-loop model built with SC Ventures-backed Zodia Markets.
The bank called the service a global first for Standard Chartered and plans to expand it to other markets, though it gave no timeline.
Standard Chartered will now let its wealthier clients in the United Arab Emirates buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum straight from their bank accounts, the British lender announced Wednesday.
The move eliminates the need for its affluent clients to rely on separate wallets or third-party platforms, the bank said.
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The service opens first to clients classified as Professional Investors and runs under licensing approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA. The bank called it a global first for Standard Chartered and the first crypto trading offering from an international bank in the UAE.
Trades are executed inside the bank's own ecosystem, and Standard Chartered handles custody and settlement end-to-end through what it calls a closed-loop model, which the bank says reduces clients' exposure to third-party wallet risk.
The bank built the product across its Wealth and Retail Banking and Corporate and Investment Banking units, working with Zodia Markets, a digital asset trading firm backed by Standard Chartered's venture arm, SC Ventures.
“As client interest in digital assets continues to grow, this launch represents a significant milestone for Standard Chartered as we bring digital assets into our core wealth offering” Samir Subberwal, the bank's global head of wealth solutions, retail products, data and analytics, said. He argued that clients now want more than access, and are looking for the security that comes with buying through a regulated institution.
BitcoinBTC · USD$81,588−2.2%Oct 7Oct 9Oct 11Oct 13Oct 14$84.2k$83.1k$81.9k$80.7k24h HighHigh$84,02524h LowLow$81,539VolVol$1.4BMarket projectionsOdds by MyriadThis weekBelow $82,000Below $82k55% chance→Buy Bitcoin with USDTPowered by JupiterPrice data by CoinGeckoCoinGeckoMore Bitcoin news and projections →Rola Abu Manneh, Standard Chartered's CEO for the UAE, Middle East and Pakistan, said the country was a natural choice given its regulatory environment and its role as one of the bank's four global wealth hubs.
Until now, Standard Chartered's crypto trading business had catered to institutions. In July 2025, it became the first global systemically important bank—one of the lenders regulators consider too big to fail—to offer spot trading in Bitcoin and Ethereum to institutional clients, through its U.K. branch.