Standard Chartered began offering direct Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to wealthy UAE clients on Wednesday, under a license from Dubai's Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority (VARA), and called the launch a global first for the British bank.

Eligible clients classified as Professional Investors can now buy and sell BTC and ETH straight from their existing bank accounts. There is no separate wallet. No third-party platform. The bank handles custody and settlement end-to-end in what it describes as a closed-loop model, built with Zodia Markets, a digital asset trading firm backed by Standard Chartered's venture arm, SC Ventures.

The product also marks the first crypto trading offering from an international bank in the UAE, the lender said.

Samir Subberwal, the bank's global head of wealth solutions, retail products, data and analytics, framed the launch as a step change in how the bank treats digital assets. "As client interest in digital assets continues to grow, this launch represents a significant milestone for Standard Chartered as we bring digital assets into our core wealth offering," he said. He argued that clients now want more than access and are looking for the security that comes with buying through a regulated institution.

Rola Abu Manneh, Standard Chartered's CEO for the UAE, Middle East and Pakistan, said the country was a natural choice given its regulatory environment and its role as one of the bank's four global wealth hubs.

What does this change for clients?

Until now, Standard Chartered's wealthy customers could only reach crypto indirectly. The menu ran through crypto exchange-traded funds on its cash equities platform, structured products, and over-the-counter derivatives tied to crypto prices. Those instruments track prices. They do not deliver ownership.

The new service changes that. Clients now own the coins themselves, held by the bank, rather than a product that follows their value. The closed-loop design also removes the operational step of moving funds to an external venue, which the bank says cuts clients' exposure to third-party wallet risk.

From institutions to private wealth

The UAE offering extends a crypto franchise that until recently served institutions only. In July 2025, Standard Chartered became the first global systemically important bank—one of the lenders regulators consider too big to fail—to offer spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to institutional clients, through its U.K. branch.

Last month the bank brought that institutional desk to the UAE through its unit in the Dubai International Financial Centre, which sits under a different watchdog, the Dubai Financial Services Authority. Its crypto custody service had already gone live in the UAE in September 2024, and in the European Union through a Luxembourg entity a few months later.

The wealth-facing product was built jointly across two divisions: Wealth and Retail Banking, and Corporate and Investment Banking. Zodia Markets provides the trading infrastructure inside that arrangement.

A bank with a public crypto stance

Standard Chartered has been one of the most vocal banks on digital assets. Its analysts have repeatedly called for Bitcoin to extend to new highs, and the bank has held a $100,000 year-end target for BTC.

In June, Geoff Kendrick, the bank's global head of digital asset research, declared crypto winter over after Bitcoin slid to nearly $59,000—a 53% drop from its October 2025 peak of $126,000.

The bank said it plans to expand the new wealth trading service to other markets. It gave no timeline. For now, the offering remains limited to Professional Investor clients in the UAE, leaving the bank's next regulatory approval elsewhere as the practical gate on how fast that footprint grows.