Standard Chartered absorbs Zodia Custody, creates Zodia Solutions

Standard Chartered announced Monday that shareholders accepted its offer to acquire Zodia Custody’s custody business and that it will spin out Zodia Solutions as an independent platform within SC Ventures.

Under the agreement, Standard Chartered will fold Zodia’s client-facing custody operations into its securities and financing services. Standard Chartered stated the transaction aims to unlock revenue and cost synergies and to expand its digital asset custody offering. Existing custody clients are expected to continue receiving services without disruption.

Zodia Solutions will be established as an independent SC Ventures platform backed by several banking investors, including existing Zodia Custody shareholders. The platform will provide bank-grade infrastructure and software to financial institutions, including Standard Chartered, for their digital asset services.

Zodia Custody was launched in 2020 by Standard Chartered and Northern Trust as a regulated crypto custody platform for institutional investors. Under the new arrangement, custody operations will be integrated into the bank while the infrastructure business will operate separately.

Standard Chartered explored options earlier this year to bring parts of Zodia in-house while leaving an infrastructure brand to operate as a software-as-a-service platform. The announced deal formalizes that approach.

Margaret Harwood-Jones, global head of financing and securities services at Standard Chartered, described the agreement as a way to accelerate growth of the bank’s global digital asset custody portfolio.

Other large banks have built regulated structures to custody digital assets directly for clients. BNY Mellon launched a Digital Asset Custody platform in the U.S. in 2022 that allows selected clients to hold and transfer Bitcoin and Ether alongside traditional assets. In February 2026, Morgan Stanley applied for a U.S. de novo national trust bank charter to enable custody of certain digital assets within a bank-regulated framework.

Shareholder approval cleared the path for the integration of Zodia Custody’s client-facing services and the launch of Zodia Solutions as a third-party infrastructure provider. Standard Chartered has not provided a timetable for closing or disclosed financial terms. A Standard Chartered spokesperson declined to comment further.