Is Standard Chartered setting up a Bitcoin, Ether trading desk?

Multinational bank Standard Chartered may be working to launch a Bitcoin and Ether trading desk.

If launched, this would make the bank one of the first global banking institutions to get into spot crypto trading.

Standard Chartered on BTC and ETH trading desk

On June 21, Bloomberg reported that the crypto desk will soon begin operations. Citing anonymous sources, the report suggests that the offering will be under the bank’s FX trading unit and operate from London, United Kingdom.

Cointelegraph reached out to Standard Chartered, but the bank neither confirmed nor denied the report. However, the bank revealed that there’s been a demand from their clients to get into BTC and ETH. They wrote:

“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 Standard Chartered representative declined to provide any further comments.

Crypto community celebrates bank’s potential crypto move

While Standard Chartered has not confirmed the move, crypto community members celebrated the potential development.

A Twitter user believes the move may be a “significant step” and a major endorsement of crypto’s growing legitimacy. Furthermore, the user believes this may boost investor confidence and drive adoption. Another user echoed the sentiment and said BTC and ETH trading could see more mainstream acceptance because of the new development.

Meanwhile, Binance CEO Richard Teng went on X to welcome the multinational bank into crypto.

Another community member believes that the bank is preparing to service large players in traditional finance, predicting that more money will flow into BTC.

Goldman Sachs clients jumping into crypto

In addition to Standard Chartered, multinational bank Goldman Sachs expressed that many of its clients are showing renewed interest in crypto assets this year.

On March 24, Goldman Sachs executive Max Minton highlighted that clients are exploring the crypto sector. Minton said that the approval of the spot Bitcoin exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the United States triggered the resurgence of institutional interest.

Source: https://cointelegraph.com/news/standard-chartered-bitcoin-ether-trading-desk