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 market firm announced on Tuesday.
The investment deal, which according to Bloomberg was for $150 million at a valuation of over $1 billion, is the first outside participation in the crypto capital markets and liquidity partner firm since its founding 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 is part of a broader partnership to unite traditional finance and digital assets, and expand access to tokenization.
“Institutional digital asset markets 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 growing 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 of 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 from Luxembourg and introduced cryptocurrency trading for institutional clients last summer, becoming one of the first global banks to offer spot trading in bitcoin and ether. Recently, it was reported that Standard Chartered was looking to acquire Zodia Custody Ltd.
In March, GSR, which claims to have more than 300 liquidity partners and more than $1 billion traded since its inception, announced the acquisition of Autónomo and Architech for $57 million, a move aimed at significantly expanding the company’s tokenization services division.
