Zodia, the institutional cryptocurrency custody platform co-owned by British banking large Standard Chartered, Japanese SBI Holdings and the monetary agency Northern Trust, is increasing its companies to Hong Kong.
Zodia Custody is launching companies in Hong Kong in response to rising demand for crypto from establishments, Zodia CEO Julian Sawyer mentioned, according to a CNBC report on Oct. 29.
According to Sawyer, crypto demand in Hong Kong is especially pushed by institutional traders moderately than retail clients, ideally matching Zodia’s crypto custody providing. He additionally talked about that Hong Kong’s stance on crypto aligns with Zodia’s ambitions, because the native authorities “sees digital assets as the future and also wants Hong Kong to be a hub.”
Zodia’s launch in Hong Kong comes because the agency aggressively scales operations in Asia, opening companies in Japan, Singapore and Australia in current months.
“What we’re seeing is there are absolutely clients in all of those four markets who want to do things,” Zodia CEO mentioned, including:
“We also see a lot of other clients and prospects outside those four jurisdictions that want to come in on the institutional side.”
According to the report, Zodia will step by step roll out its companies in Hong Kong, initially providing assist for a restricted variety of cryptocurrency belongings. The agency is reportedly in discussions with Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission and Hong Kong Monetary Authority about changing into regulated in the monetary district, the report notes.
Related: Hong Kong securities regulator updates crypto policies, citing market developments
Zodia didn’t instantly reply to Cointelegraph’s request for remark.
As beforehand reported, Standard Chartered originally announced plans to launch an institutional custodial platform for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin (BTC) in late 2020. Launched in 2021, Zodia raised $36 million in a Series A funding round led by SBI Holdings in April 2023. The platform supports 38 cryptocurrencies, together with BTC and Ether (ETH), and stablecoins like Tether (USDT) and USD Coin (USDC).
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