Standard Chartered to Fully Acquire and Retire Zodia Custody Brand by August 2026

Standard Chartered will fully acquire Zodia Custody, with signing targeted for the end of June 2026 and completion by the end of August 2026. The transaction will fold the bank's existing digital custody businesses in Dubai, Luxembourg, and Hong Kong into Zodia Custody before retiring the Zodia Custody brand.

A new entity called Zodia Solutions will continue the software and infrastructure side of the business.

Zodia Solutions is backed by existing bank shareholders including Northern Trust, Emirates NBD, and National Australia Bank. Zodia Custody CEO Julian Sawyer said the acquisition represents a major validation for the sector. He stated that every single bank will need to know how to hold digital assets and that the crypto industry is moving toward banking because of the law.

In 2023, Zodia announced a $36 million funding round led by SBI Holdings. 6 million, with total funding of roughly $46 million. Sawyer said the deal reflects a maturity point where custody of blockchain infrastructure is moving from crypto to other assets, stablecoins, and tokenization.

He noted that clients' interest in the infrastructure software has scaled dramatically and that the market for such services is huge. Sawyer declined to disclose the purchase amount or valuation. He said the shift shows that legacy banks cannot build institutional-grade digital asset custody safely or efficiently without proper software.