Standard Chartered launches spot BTC, ETH trading in UAE — SkimNews
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- Standard Chartered launched spot Bitcoin and Ether trading for institutional clients in the UAE through its entity regulated by the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).
- The bank said it is the first major global bank to offer institutional digital asset trading in the region and the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) with such an offering.
- The trading service builds on Standard Chartered's September 2024 UAE digital asset custody launch and a June banking agreement with crypto exchange CoinMENA for fiat on- and off-ramps and client money accounts.
- Trading platform Capital.com secured a virtual-asset license from the UAE's Capital Market Authority in August and plans to offer spot crypto services in the region.
- Neobank Revolut received in-principle approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority in July to offer crypto-related services in the region.
Why it matters: Standard Chartered now operates a full regulated crypto stack in the UAE — custody since September 2024, banking rails for exchanges via CoinMENA, and now spot trading — giving institutional clients a G-SIB venue for Bitcoin and Ether that didn't previously exist in the region, while Capital.com and Revolut race to secure their own UAE crypto approvals.
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