What to know:
- Standard Chartered’s venture arm SC Ventures has invested about $150 million in crypto market maker GSR at a valuation above $1 billion, marking GSR’s first external stake since its 2013 founding.
- The deal is framed as a broader partnership to build regulated, scalable infrastructure that links traditional finance with digital assets and expands access to tokenization for institutional clients.
- The investment deepens Standard Chartered’s push into digital assets, following its launch of custody and spot bitcoin and ether trading services and its reported bid to fully acquire crypto custodian Zodia, while GSR continues to grow via acquisitions to bolster its tokenization business.
Standard Chartered bank, through its venture capital arm SC Ventures, has invested in GSR, a firm focused on digital asset markets. This move aims to broaden Standard Chartered’s offerings in the cryptocurrency space, according to an announcement made Tuesday.
Founded in 2013 by ex-Goldman Sachs traders, the crypto firm has secured its first outside investment – a $150 million deal, as reported by Bloomberg, that values the company at over $1 billion. This funding will help the firm, which specializes in crypto capital markets and liquidity, expand its operations.
GSR and SC Ventures did not immediately respond to a CoinDesk request for comment.
GSR announced the agreement as part of a larger effort to connect traditional and digital finance, and to make tokenization more widely available.
According to GSR CEO Xin Son, digital asset markets for institutions are quickly becoming more sophisticated. The companies that will succeed in this space will be those that understand traditional finance and can offer secure, reliable banking services.
SC Ventures and GSR are collaborating to build the necessary systems to support the growing interest from traditional financial institutions in regulated cryptocurrency services.
According to Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures, the future of digital assets depends on building a strong underlying infrastructure.
Standard Chartered is growing its presence in the digital asset world. They started offering digital asset custody services from Luxembourg in January 2025 and began allowing institutional clients to trade cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Ether last summer – making them one of the first major banks to do so. Recently, reports surfaced that Standard Chartered was looking to buy Zodia Custody Ltd. outright.
In March, GSR, a firm reporting over 300 liquidity partners and more than $1 trillion in trades to date, announced it was buying both Autonomous and Architech for $57 million. This purchase is intended to greatly grow GSR’s business offering services related to tokenizing assets.
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2026-05-05 15:14