Standard Chartered Offers RLUSD Custody in Dubai
Through its Dubai office, Standard Chartered is linking regulated custody to Ripple’s RLUSD on the XRP Ledger. The bank is also working on using the stablecoin as collateral at LMAX Group.
Key Takeaways
- Standard Chartered is offering institutional custody for Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD on the XRP Ledger through Dubai.
- The bank is working with Ripple and LMAX Group on RLUSD as collateral on LMAX, but that setup is not live yet.
- Standard Chartered is expanding its custody services further in Singapore and previously distributed a regulated stablecoin in Hong Kong.
Standard Chartered is now offering institutional custody for Ripple’s dollar-pegged stablecoin RLUSD on the XRP Ledger through its Dubai office. That gives selected clients a regulated bank to hold the stablecoin with, while Ripple takes another step toward getting RLUSD more widely used in institutional trading.
Custody and Collateral
The bank also wants to work with Ripple and LMAX Group on a setup where clients can use RLUSD held at Standard Chartered as collateral on LMAX’s trading platform. That part is not live yet and, according to the bank, depends on documentation, testing, regulation, and internal approvals.
LMAX wants to let clients trade without first moving the stablecoin to the platform. In practice, that separates custody from execution: the bank holds the tokens and the venue accepts their value as collateral.
Joseph Goh, head of Asia-Pacific at crypto investment bank Areta, called regulated custody tied to a globally systemically important bank one of the most important pieces of infrastructure in digital assets. Waqar Chaudry, global head of digital assets, securities services, and transaction services at Standard Chartered, said institutional clients want to take part in digital asset markets without compromising custody or risk management for their assets.
Ripple Pushes RLUSD
The partnership fits into Ripple’s broader push to position RLUSD as a settlement and collateral asset for institutions. Ripple already provided LMAX with $150 million (€134 million) in financing in January as part of plans to build the stablecoin into the group’s infrastructure, including for institutional trading.
For European crypto followers, the key point is that a major bank is now linking custody to a stablecoin that is being positioned specifically for institutional use. These kinds of setups can show how banks, trading platforms, and stablecoins are getting closer together, without the stablecoin itself needing to sit directly on an exchange.
Broader Custody Network
Standard Chartered is meanwhile expanding its custody services further across several financial centers. Last week, the bank said it wants to offer custody in Singapore to institutional clients for selected cryptocurrencies, stablecoins, and tokenized real-world assets, after fully acquiring Zodia Custody earlier this year. In August, the bank also became the first bank to distribute one of Hong Kong’s two regulated stablecoins. That broader rollout lines up with the earlier expansion of digital custody in Singapore, where the bank is also focusing on institutional custody for stablecoins and tokenized assets.
