Normal Chartered plans to unify Zodia’s custody service with its digital asset division, Bloomberg reported Wednesday, citing individuals with information of the plan.
Established in late 2020 by SC Ventures, Normal Chartered’s innovation unit, and Northern Belief, Zodia Custody is a digital asset custodian designed particularly for institutional buyers. The platform goals to bridge conventional banking experience with the velocity and innovation of fintech to offer safe and compliant custody.
Zodia Custody is collectively owned by Normal Chartered, Northern Belief, and SBI Holdings, with Normal Chartered as the biggest and controlling shareholder. A couple of different banks, together with Nationwide Australia Financial institution and Emirates NBD, maintain minority stakes.
The transfer, which might be introduced as early as this month, comes after the UK multinational financial institution was mentioned to be contemplating rolling out crypto prime brokerage by way of SC Ventures. The financial institution has labored with Coinbase on institutional crypto companies equivalent to buying and selling, custody, staking, and lending.
As a part of the merger plan, Zodia would live on as a standalone software-as-a-service platform for custody know-how, however the client-facing custody work would sit contained in the mother or father financial institution.
Market measurement and competitors
The digital asset custody market is predicted to broaden from over $1 trillion in 2026 to greater than $7 trillion by 2035, rising at a CAGR of 23.7%. Elevated participation by institutional buyers and shifting regulatory frameworks are boosting demand for safe and compliant custody options.
North America leads the market, with Europe following, and key gamers equivalent to Coinbase Custody, BitGo, Gemini, Ledger Enterprise, and Fireblocks maintain almost half of the worldwide market share.
Whereas State Avenue and BNY Mellon have already scaled up their digital divisions, Morgan Stanley has taken the subsequent step by making use of for a devoted nationwide belief financial institution constitution to custody and stake crypto belongings.
About 73% of institutional buyers now report lively involvement or plans to spice up digital asset allocations, in keeping with the EY-Parthenon 2026 survey. Custody continues to be the crucial infrastructure enabling buying and selling, lending, staking, and tokenization. With out a trusted custodian, large-scale capital deployment is unlikely.
In January, Zodia turned the primary custodian to help AUDM, an Australian greenback–denominated stablecoin.
The next month, it launched Zodia Change, permitting purchasers to swap belongings immediately inside the custody platform with out exterior pre-funding. The agency has additionally partnered with a protocol to offer credit score amenities backed by tokenized belongings.
