Standard Chartered PLC’s (STAN) venture capital arm, SC Ventures, has invested in GSR, as the London-based multinational bank looks to further expand its digital asset services, the crypto capital markets firm announced on Tuesday.
The investment deal, which Bloomberg reported was worth $150 million at a valuation of more than $1 billion, is the first external stake in the crypto capital markets and liquidity partner firm since it was founded in 2013 by former Goldman Sachs traders.
GSR and SC Ventures did not immediately respond to a request for comment from CoinDesk.
In its statement, GSR said the deal was part of a broader partnership aimed at connecting traditional finance and digital assets and expanding access to tokenization.
“Institutional digital asset markets are maturing rapidly, and the firms best positioned to lead will be those that combine deep capital markets expertise with reliable banking infrastructure,” said Xin Son, CEO of GSR.
SC Ventures and GSR plan to develop a scalable market infrastructure in light of the growing institutional demand for regulated crypto services.
“The next phase of the evolution of digital assets will be defined by the strength of infrastructure,” said Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures.
Standard Chartered has recently made financial investments aimed at expanding its digital footprint. In January 2025, it launched its own digital asset custody services in Luxembourg and introduced cryptocurrency trading for institutional clients last summer, becoming one of the first global banks to offer spot trading of bitcoin and ether. Standard Chartered reportedly recently sought to fully acquire Zodia Custody Ltd.
In March, GSR, which claims to have more than 300 liquidity partners and more than $1 trillion traded since its inception, announced the $57 million acquisition of Autonomous and Architech, a move aimed at significantly expanding the company’s tokenization services division.
