Standard Chartered plans to add Singapore to the locations where it provides digital-asset custody, expanding the bank’s services for institutional and corporate clients.
The British multinational said it intends to offer custody for selected cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets in the city-state. The planned service is aimed at clients seeking regulated, bank-grade infrastructure to hold and administer digital assets.
According to Bitcoin Magazine, the bank said institutional and corporate demand for secure digital-asset custody is increasing. Standard Chartered already provides custody services in the United Arab Emirates, Luxembourg and Hong Kong.
Singapore Expansion Targets Institutional Demand
Patrick Lee, Standard Chartered’s CEO for Singapore and CEO for ASEAN and South Asia, described Singapore as an important financial-innovation center with a strong institutional ecosystem and rising demand for trusted digital-asset services.
He said robust infrastructure would be important for the secure movement, safekeeping and servicing of tokenized assets at institutional scale. The comments frame custody as more than a storage service: for professional investors and companies, it can also support the administration and transfer of assets represented on a blockchain.
Crypto custody generally involves securing digital assets and managing the systems needed to authorize transactions. Banks entering this area are positioning custody as a controlled, regulated gateway for clients that want exposure to digital assets without managing the underlying security arrangements themselves.
Part of a Broader Digital-Asset Strategy
Standard Chartered’s Singapore plan follows several moves into cryptocurrency and tokenization. In 2025, the bank established a London trading desk for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, making it one of the first global banks to enter spot cryptocurrency trading. The desk was incorporated into the bank’s foreign-exchange trading operation.
The bank also launched Libeara, a blockchain unit intended to help institutions tokenize traditional assets. Tokenization refers to representing assets such as financial instruments on a blockchain. Traditional financial firms have been exploring the technology, including efforts to bring stocks onto blockchains and potentially enable trading around the clock.
Last month, Standard Chartered introduced bitcoin trading for institutional clients in the UAE. The bank’s planned Singapore custody offering therefore adds another regional component to its digital-asset business rather than representing an isolated initiative.
Banks Expand Custody Services
Custody has become an early entry point for banks building digital-asset capabilities. BNY Mellon became the first major U.S. bank to offer digital-asset custody services in 2022. Deutsche Bank said last month that it planned to launch custody for bitcoin, ether and selected stablecoins for European corporate and institutional clients later in 2026, subject to regulatory approval.
The wider development reflects growing efforts by banks to connect traditional financial services with cryptoassets, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets. Standard Chartered’s announcement, however, specifies only selected assets and does not identify the full list of instruments that would be covered in Singapore.
Current Market Picture
Moneyiar market data at 9:59 p.m. local time on October 8, 2026, showed bitcoin at $81,627.08, down 1.81% over 24 hours and 3.44% over seven days. Aethir was $0.006347, down 4.39% in 24 hours but up 9.17% over seven days. Comedian stood at $0.060954, down 6.04% and 6.62% over those periods, respectively. REAL was $0.192705, up 3.26% over 24 hours and down 2.28% over seven days, based on Moneyiar data.
