Standard Chartered PLC’s ( STAN ) venture capital arm SC Ventures 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 according to Bloomberg was for $150 million at a value of more than $1 billion, is the first outside 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 CoinDesk request for comment.
In its statement, GSR said the deal is part of a broader partnership to bridge the gap between traditional finance and digital assets and to expand access to tokenization.
“Institutional markets for digital assets are maturing rapidly, and the companies 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 scalable market infrastructure in light of the increasing institutional demand for regulated crypto services.
“The next phase of digital asset evolution will be defined by the strength of the infrastructure,” said Alex Manson, CEO at SC Ventures.
Standard Chartered has recently made financial investments aimed at expanding its digital asset footprint. In January 2025, it launched its own digital asset custody services out of Luxembourg and introduced crypto trading to institutional clients last summer, becoming one of the first global banks to offer spot bitcoin and ether trading. Standard Chartered recently sought to fully acquire Zodia Custody Ltd.
In March, GSR, which claims to have over 300 liquidity partners and transacted over $1 trillion since inception, announced the acquisition of Autonomous and Architech for $57 million, a move aimed at significantly expanding the firm’s tokenization services arm.
