Standard Chartered Opens Bitcoin and Ethereum Trading to Wealthy UAE Clients

In brief

• Standard Chartered launched direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading for affluent UAE clients on Wednesday after receiving licensing approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority.
• Eligible Professional Investor clients can buy and sell BTC and ETH through their existing bank accounts, with the bank handling custody and settlement in a closed-loop model built with SC Ventures-backed Zodia Markets.
• The bank called the service a global first for Standard Chartered and plans to expand it to other markets, though it gave no timeline.

Standard Chartered will now let its wealthier clients in the United Arab Emirates buy and sell Bitcoin and Ethereum straight from their bank accounts, the British lender announced Wednesday.

The move eliminates the need for its affluent clients to rely on separate wallets or third-party platforms, the bank said.

The service opens first to clients classified as Professional Investors and runs under licensing approval from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority, or VARA. The bank called it a global first for Standard Chartered and the first crypto trading offering from an international bank in the UAE.

Trades are executed inside the bank's own ecosystem, and Standard Chartered handles custody and settlement end-to-end through what it calls a closed-loop model, which the bank says reduces clients' exposure to third-party wallet risk.