Standard Chartered plans to merge parts of Zodia Custody into its digital assets division

Standard Chartered plans to unify Zodia’s custody service with its digital asset division, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the plan.

Established in late 2020 by SC Ventures, Standard Chartered’s innovation unit, and Northern Trust, Zodia Custody is a digital asset custodian designed specifically for institutional investors. The platform aims to bridge traditional banking expertise with the speed and innovation of fintech to provide secure and compliant custody.

Zodia Custody is jointly owned by Standard Chartered, Northern Trust, and SBI Holdings, with Standard Chartered as the largest and controlling shareholder. A few other banks, including National Australia Bank and Emirates NBD, hold minority stakes.

The move, which could be announced as early as this month, comes after the UK multinational bank was said to be considering rolling out crypto prime brokerage through SC Ventures. The bank has worked with Coinbase on institutional crypto services such as trading, custody, staking, and lending.

As part of the merger plan, Zodia would continue to exist as a standalone software-as-a-service platform for custody technology, but the client-facing custody work would sit inside the parent bank.

Market size and competition

The digital asset custody market is expected to expand from over $1 trillion in 2026 to more than $7 trillion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 23.7%. Increased participation by institutional investors and shifting regulatory frameworks are boosting demand for secure and compliant custody solutions.

North America leads the market, with Europe following, and key players such as Coinbase Custody, BitGo, Gemini, Ledger Enterprise, and Fireblocks hold nearly half of the global market share.

While State Street and BNY Mellon have already scaled up their digital divisions, Morgan Stanley has taken the next step by applying for a dedicated national trust bank charter to custody and stake crypto assets.

About 73% of institutional investors now report active involvement or plans to boost digital asset allocations, according to the EY-Parthenon 2026 survey. Custody is still the critical infrastructure enabling trading, lending, staking, and tokenization. Without a trusted custodian, large-scale capital deployment is unlikely.

In January, Zodia became the first custodian to support AUDM, an Australian dollar–denominated stablecoin.

The following month, it launched Zodia Switch, allowing clients to swap assets directly within the custody platform without external pre-funding. The firm has also partnered with a protocol to provide credit facilities backed by tokenized assets.