10 articles tagged #StandardChartered — curated RWA tokenization coverage.

Standard Chartered Bank (SCB) has officially integrated Citi’s 24/7 USD Clearing and Citi Token Services to enhance its cross-border payment capabilities. This collaboration allows SCB to leverage Citi’s institutional-grade blockchain-based solution, enabling near-instantaneous settlement of USD transactions around the clock. By utilizing Citi Token Services, SCB can facilitate programmable financial services and automated liquidity management, moving away from traditional batch-processing limitations. This integration marks a significant milestone for the RWA market as it demonstrates how major global banks are adopting tokenized deposits to improve operational efficiency and capital velocity. The move underscores a broader industry shift toward interoperable blockchain infrastructure for institutional treasury management. As traditional banking giants adopt these tokenized solutions, the friction associated with legacy correspondent banking networks is substantially reduced. This development signals increased institutional confidence in private, permissioned ledgers for high-value settlement processes.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has expanded its official crypto-asset service provider register to 280 firms following the conclusion of the MiCA transitional period. This update adds 37 newly licensed entities, including major financial institutions like Standard Chartered, FalconX, and Sygnum Europe. The inclusion of CACEIS, the asset-servicing arm of Crédit Agricole, into the electronic money token register highlights the growing integration of traditional banking with digital asset infrastructure. While service provider licensing is accelerating across jurisdictions like Cyprus, France, and Italy, the register currently shows zero approved issuers for asset-referenced tokens. This disparity indicates that while institutional market access is maturing, the regulatory path for token issuers remains more complex and slower. By centralizing these approvals, ESMA is transitioning from a rulemaking body to a direct supervisor of the European digital asset market. This shift provides institutional investors with a standardized framework for counterparty due diligence and risk management. Ultimately, the register serves as a critical filter that legitimizes the RWA and crypto ecosystem within the European Union.

OKX has integrated BlackRock's BUIDL tokenized U.S. Treasury fund into its collateral framework, enabling institutional and VIP clients to utilize the yield-bearing asset as trading margin. This development allows eligible users to post BUIDL as collateral while it remains under the custody of Standard Chartered, marking the first off-exchange tokenized collateral framework backed by a globally systemically important bank. Within the OKX margin system, BUIDL is treated as fungible with USD and USDC, ensuring that clients maintain ownership and continue to accrue yield while actively trading. This initiative, currently live for clients of OKX Middle East, represents a significant evolution in the utility of tokenized real-world assets. By moving beyond passive holding, the integration demonstrates how tokenized products can function as active market infrastructure within live trading environments. The collaboration builds upon an existing collateral mirroring program between OKX and Standard Chartered, signaling a broader industry shift toward deeper institutional adoption of RWA-backed financial instruments. Future expansion of this framework is planned based on regional demand and jurisdictional requirements.

The European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) has updated its MiCA register by adding 37 licensed crypto-asset service providers (CASPs) following the conclusion of the transitional period. This update brings the total number of registered entities to 280, signaling a transition from rulemaking to active market supervision across the European Union. Notable additions include Standard Chartered, FalconX, Sygnum Europe, and CACEIS, reflecting increased institutional participation in the regulated digital asset space. Standard Chartered’s dual acquisition of MiCA and Electronic Money Institution (EMI) licenses highlights the strategic importance of combining digital asset services with traditional payment infrastructure. While CASP licensing is accelerating, the register for asset-referenced tokens remains empty, indicating a more cautious approach toward token issuance under the new framework. This shift creates a competitive filter where registered firms gain significant market access advantages over unlicensed competitors. Ultimately, the MiCA register is evolving into a critical tool for institutional due diligence, procurement, and risk management within the European financial ecosystem.

Securitize has officially debuted on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker SECZ following a merger with a Cantor Fitzgerald-backed SPAC. The company, which counts BlackRock and Morgan Stanley as backers, simultaneously launched tokenized versions of its shares on the Avalanche and Solana blockchains. This milestone represents the first instance of a newly public company offering tokenized equity to eligible US investors. Simultaneously, Standard Chartered has partnered with Circle to enable institutional clients to mint and redeem USDC directly through the bank's platform. As the first Global Systemically Important Bank to offer this service, Standard Chartered is integrating stablecoin access into traditional risk and compliance frameworks. These developments signal a significant maturation of the RWA market, as institutional-grade infrastructure increasingly bridges the gap between legacy financial systems and blockchain-based assets. By embedding these capabilities, both Securitize and Standard Chartered are addressing the industry's demand for deeper liquidity, extended trading hours, and seamless onchain settlement.

Standard Chartered has secured authorization under the European Union’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) regulation and as an Electronic Money Institution (EMI). This dual regulatory approval represents a pivotal advancement for the bank's Financing & Securities Services division as it expands its digital asset custody capabilities across Europe. By obtaining these licenses, the institution aligns itself with the EU's comprehensive framework for crypto-asset service providers, ensuring legal compliance for its digital asset operations. This development is significant for the RWA market because it provides a regulated institutional bridge for tokenized assets and digital securities within the European Economic Area. As major global banks integrate MiCA-compliant infrastructure, the barrier to entry for institutional participation in tokenized financial instruments is substantially lowered. The move signals a broader trend of traditional financial giants formalizing their digital asset strategies to support the growing demand for regulated custody solutions. Ultimately, this regulatory milestone enhances the credibility and operational security of the European digital asset ecosystem, facilitating the future growth of institutional-grade RWA tokenization.

Standard Chartered research suggests that the integration of tokenized real-world assets into decentralized finance will significantly boost deposits for the Aave lending protocol. Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital assets research, notes that Aave is well-positioned to regain its status as a dominant onchain lending platform despite recent challenges. The protocol previously faced setbacks, including a broader decline in digital asset prices and a $292 million cybertheft incident involving KelpDAO in April that reduced its market share. However, the bank anticipates these negative factors will fade as digital asset prices recover and the protocol moves past the security incident. With an October 2025 deposit base of approximately $75 billion, Aave already possesses a scale comparable to the 30th-largest U.S. bank. Standard Chartered projects that tokenized assets will increasingly serve as collateral and liquidity sources within DeFi, further driving growth. This analysis extends the bank's broader thesis that total value locked in DeFi could reach $2.7 trillion by 2030, with Aave serving as a primary venue for borrowing against tokenized assets.

Libeara, a tokenization platform incubated by Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures, has successfully closed a $14 million strategic funding round led by global market maker GSR. Additional participants in this round include Openspace Capital, Kyobo Life Insurance Group, AlloyX, Kaia Investment Partners, Simsan Ventures, and Monk’s Hill Ventures. The Singapore-based firm intends to utilize these funds to accelerate the global expansion of its tokenization infrastructure. This development follows Libeara’s acquisition of a Capital Markets Services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore in March, which grants the company the authority to distribute tokenized funds and securities independently. To date, the platform has facilitated over $1 billion in tokenized assets across various fund relationships. The involvement of Kyobo Life Insurance Group highlights the growing institutional interest in tokenization, particularly within the South Korean market. This funding round underscores the increasing maturity of the RWA sector as platforms move toward direct distribution models and broader international integration.

Standard Chartered has reaffirmed its bullish price targets for Ether, projecting $4,000 by the end of 2026 and $40,000 by 2030, despite ETH trading 57% below its 2025 peak. The bank argues that Ethereum's internal network metrics, such as transaction counts and total value locked, remain near record levels, suggesting a disconnect between fundamental usage and current market price. This analysis highlights Ethereum's critical role as the primary settlement layer for stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets, which are projected to see massive growth by 2028. While some analysts compare this price slump to Amazon during the dot-com era, others note that Ethereum currently lacks a strong narrative and clear value accrual mechanisms for ETH holders. The market faces headwinds from persistent outflows in U.S. spot ETH exchange-traded funds and a broader trend where Bitcoin momentum dominates price variation. Despite these challenges, institutional interest in tokenization and artificial intelligence-powered agents continues to support long-term optimism among some major market participants. The ongoing debate centers on whether Ethereum's dominance in onchain assets will eventually translate into superior returns for the underlying ETH token.

Standard Chartered projects that assets locked in decentralized finance will expand 37-fold to reach $2.7 trillion by 2030. This growth is expected to be fueled by the integration of tokenized real-world assets and crypto-native assets into onchain protocols. Currently, only 3% of stablecoins and 10% of tokenized RWAs are utilized within DeFi, but the bank anticipates this share will rise to 30% by the end of the decade. Geoff Kendrick, head of digital assets research, identifies DeFi protocols as a primary driver for future generational wealth in the digital asset space. While the bank previously forecasted non-stablecoin tokenized RWAs to hit $2 trillion by 2028, achieving the $2.7 trillion DeFi target requires a ninefold increase in the proportion of tokenized value deployed onchain. The report highlights Uniswap as a potential key trading venue for these assets due to its established scale and reliability. However, industry experts caution that tokenization alone does not guarantee liquidity, noting that fragmented blockchain formats could lead to siloed markets and pricing inefficiencies.