Markets
Binance CEO welcomes Standard Chartered’s decision to launch Bitcoin trading desk
Binance CEO Richard Teng welcomed Standard Chartered to the crypto industry after reports emerged that the banking giant was preparing to launch a spot trading desk for Bitcoin And Ethereum.
The move would make the bank one of the first major traditional financial institutions to offer direct trading services for major digital assets and could rival Binance’s dominance in the sector.
Binance is the largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume and has faced several regulatory challenges in recent years. According to Kaiko dataover 53% of the overall BTC trading volume on centralized exchanges occurs on the platform.
Pro-crypto movements
Sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg that the new office would be part of the bank’s foreign exchange trading unit and would operate from London. A bank spokesperson was quoted as saying:
“We have worked closely with our regulators to meet our institutional clients’ demand to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, in line with our strategy to support clients across the digital asset ecosystem, from access and from curation to tokenization and interoperability.”
The bank has not yet responded to CryptoSlate’s request for additional comment at the time of publication.
Standard Chartered’s initiative reflects the growing demand for institutional adoption of crypto and highlights the bank’s commitment to the emerging sector. Currently, the bank has stakes in two crypto companies, Zodiac Guard and Zodiac Markets, which provide services such as crypto custody and over-the-counter trading of digital assets.
Institutional interest
The crypto community welcomed the news of the bank’s decision, seeing it as an important step towards continued institutional adoption of crypto.
Market experts explained that the move was not surprising as traditional financial institutions like banks need to adapt to the current economic landscape, considering the approval of several crypto-related ETFs in major markets like THE WE And Hong Kong.
Nonetheless, banks would be required to adapt to a strict regulatory environment regarding their exposure to digital assets.
The Basel Committee on Banking Supervision advises banks must assign a 1,250% risk weight to unhedged crypto exposures. In the United States, regulations such as the SEC’s controversial Special Accounting Bulletin (SAB) 121 impose additional constraints on banks dealing with digital assets.