Standard Chartered plans to integrate Zodia’s security division into its digital assets division

Standard Chartered plans to merge Zodiac's security services with its digital assets division, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing people familiar with the plan.

In the year Founded in late 2020 by SC Ventures, the innovative arm of Standard Chartered and Northern Trust, Zodia Protection is a digital asset custodian designed specifically for institutional investors. The platform aims to provide secure and compliant protection by bridging the expertise of traditional banking with the speed and innovation of fintech.

Zodia Protection is jointly owned by Standard Chartered, Northern Trust and SBI Holdings, of which Standard Chartered is the largest and controlling shareholder. A few other banks, including National Australia Bank and Emirates NBD, have minority stakes.

The move may have been announced earlier this month, after a UK multinational bank was said to be considering a crypto-prime brokerage through SC Ventures. The bank has worked with Coinbase on institutional crypto services such as trading, custody, collateral and lending.

As part of the integration plan, Zodia will continue to have a standalone software-as-a-service platform for protection technology, but client-facing protection functions will be housed within the parent bank.

Market size and competition

The digital asset protection market is expected to grow from USD 1 trillion by 2026 to USD 7 trillion by 2035, growing at a CAGR of 23.7%. Increasing participation of institutional investors and changing regulatory frameworks will increase the demand for reliable and compliant security solutions.

North America leads the market, followed by Europe, and key players such as Coinbase Custody, BitGo, Gemini, Ledger Enterprise and Fireblocks account for nearly half of the global market share.

While State Street and BNY Mellon have already grown their digital divisions, Morgan Stanley has taken the next step by applying for a national trust bank charter to hold and liquidate crypto assets.

According to the EY-Parthenon 2026 survey, 73% of institutional investors are active or plan to increase their digital asset allocation. Storage is still the critical infrastructure that enables transactions, loans, shares and tokens. Big capital deployment is impossible without a trusted guardian.

In January, Zodia became the first custodian to support AUDM, the Australian dollar–denominated stablecoin.

The following month, Zodia Switch was launched, allowing customers to exchange assets within the captive platform without external pre-funding. The firm has partnered with the protocol to offer loan offerings backed by tokenized assets.