Standard Chartered setting up spot crypto trading desk in London for Bitcoin, Ether

Standard Chartered is setting up a trading trading desk for Bitcoin and Ether, people familiar with the matter said, making it one of the first global banks to enter spot cryptocurrency trading.

The new crypto desk is close to starting operations and will be part of the bank’s FX trading unit, two of the people said, asking not to be named discussing private information. It will be run from London, according to one person.

Banks including Goldman Sachs Group Inc. have been trading cryptocurrency derivatives for years, but strict regulations have kept them from dealing directly in the underlying assets.

The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision has proposed that banks must apply a 1,250% risk weighting to any unhedged crypto exposure, making it difficult to generate profits.

“We have been working closely with our regulators to support demand from our institutional clients to trade Bitcoin

and Ethereum, in line with our strategy to support clients across the wider digital asset ecosystem, from access and custody to tokenization and interoperability,” the bank said in an emailed statement. A Standard Chartered spokesperson declined to comment further.

Standard Chartered is among several large banks pushing deeper into crypto as institutional adoption of the asset class widens. It owns stakes in two crypto firms, Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, which offer services ranging from custody to over-the-counter trading.

In November, it launched a blockchain unit called Libeara to help institutions tokenize traditional assets. The unit is supporting the creation of a tokenized government bond fund using the Singaporean dollar.