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Standard Chartered and OKX have announced a partnership expansion into Europe, bringing bank-backed crypto custody to institutions in the bloc.
Standard Chartered & OKX Expand Crypto Partnership To EEA
As revealed in a press release, OKX is expanding its partnership with Standard Chartered. The two first came together in April to launch a first-of-its-kind collateral mirroring program in the UAE, allowing institutional clients to custody their assets with the bank while mirroring those balances into the crypto exchange for trading.
Standard Chartered and OKX have now decided to expand this service to investors in the European Economic Area (EEA). “This innovation gives clients the best of both worlds: bank-grade custody and seamless exchange access, helping them reduce counterparty risk, strengthen asset security, and trade with greater confidence,” said the press release.
Standard Chartered is a major multinational financial institution headquartered in the UK that’s classified as a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) by the Financial Stability Board (FSB). G-SIBs are considered institutions so core to the global economic framework that any instability related to them can have wide-reaching ripple effects. Earlier in the year, Standard Chartered became the first bank of this class to roll out a spot Bitcoin and Ethereum trading desk for institutional traders.
With the OKX partnership, the bank has also become the first G-SIB to team up with a crypto exchange. OKX noted that the collaboration marks “a major step forward in aligning digital asset markets with the highest standards of traditional finance—bringing greater assurance and credibility for institutions and clients alike.”
OKX, currently ranked the second largest crypto exchange in the world based on trading volume, is licensed under the Markets in Crypto Assets Regulation (MiCA), the European Union’s unified framework for crypto assets. “MiCA provides clarity and certainty in regulation, which gives institutional clients the confidence to deploy capital securely,” read the press release. “By pairing this with innovative solutions like collateral mirroring, we’re helping clients trade more efficiently in a safeguarded environment.”
Speaking of institutional crypto developments in the EU, nine big banks announced in late September a consortium aimed at launching a MiCA-compliant euro-based stablecoin. “Stablecoins” are digital assets that have their price pegged to a fiat currency. Currently, the sector is heavily dominated by USD-tied tokens, so this initiative intends to create a real European alternative.
The initial list of participants included major European players, including two G-SIBs in ING and UniCredit. According to a Bloomberg report from last week, a tenth institution is joining the consortium: Citigroup, another G-SIB. The bank is the first non-European entity to take part in the effort.
While no concrete date is known for when the banks will release the euro stablecoin, the initial announcement noted that they are aiming for a launch in the second half of 2026.
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OKX has strengthened its European footprint with Standard Chartered.
OKX has announced the expansion of its partnership with Standard Chartered Bank into the European Economic Area (EEA), as it extended a collaboration that first began in the United Arab Emirates earlier this year. The move introduces OKX’s collateral mirroring programme to institutional clients across Europe, which allows users to hold their assets securely with Standard Chartered, a Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB), while maintaining corresponding balances on OKX for trading purposes.
The arrangement enables institutions to benefit from both bank-grade custody and direct access to digital asset markets, effectively reducing counterparty risk and enhancing trading efficiency.
OKX Expansion
With the latest collaboration, Standard Chartered has become the first and only G-SIB to partner directly with a crypto exchange. OKX said the expansion depicts growing regulatory confidence in the model and indicates a push toward aligning crypto market infrastructure with established financial standards. The partnership’s rollout in the EEA is expected to provide institutional clients with a unified framework for secure, compliant, and scalable digital asset management across Europe.
Standard Chartered’s Global Head of Financing and Securities Services, Margaret Harwood-Jones, said the initiative combines the bank’s existing custody infrastructure with OKX’s regulatory framework to ensure “the highest standards of security and compliance for institutional clients in Europe.”
The exchange also highlighted that the partnership builds on its long-term commitment to Europe, supported by its Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) license.
From EU Investigations to US Relaunch
In March, Bloomberg had reported that OKX’s decentralized trading and self-custody platforms are reportedly under scrutiny by European regulators after being linked to the laundering of $1.5 billion stolen in the Bybit hack by North Korea’s Lazarus Group. The exchange denied the allegations, even as the report suggested that it may risk losing the MiCA license granted earlier this year.
After regulatory challenges in Europe, OKX made a push to re-establish itself in the United States. In April, the exchange announced it was reopening its US crypto platform and introducing a multi-chain Web3 wallet, following a $505 million settlement with the Department of Justice earlier this year.
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Standard Chartered, a major global banking group, is deepening ties with cryptocurrency exchange OKX, becoming its institutional custodian in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Standard Chartered and OKX launched a collateral mirroring program in the EEA, allowing local institutional clients to keep their crypto directly in Standard Chartered’s custody, OKX announced on Wednesday.
The launch marks an expansion of a pilot initially launched in Dubai in April, aiming to enable institutions to keep their assets with a globally systemically important bank (G-SIB) while mirroring the balances into OKX for trading.
The program’s expansion in the EEA reinforces OKX’s commitment to Europe after the exchange secured a Maltese license under Europe’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework in early 2025.
How does the program work?
Before the deal with Standard Chartered, OKX’s institutional clients mostly kept their crypto on the exchange, with fiat transactions being handled through regular bank partners.
While OKX’s default custody option was its in-house solution, the exchange also allowed institutions to use third-party custodians, including Copper or Komainu, if they preferred to hold assets off-exchange.
With Standard Chartered’s integration, OKX’s institutional clients can keep their assets directly with a major regulated bank, while OKX can mirror those assets back into its trading system.
Growing trust following October’s flash crash
OKX’s collaboration with Standard Chartered is crucial for growing trust in the crypto ecosystem amid the market turmoil in October, with exchanges suffering $20 billion liquidations on Friday.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has faced a massive controversy since the crash, highlighting the vulnerabilities of its price oracles and blaming the platform for investor losses worth millions of dollars.
Related: Centralized exchanges face claims of massive liquidation undercounts
“Recent events have reignited the ‘Wild West’ narrative around crypto, but partnerships like ours with Standard Chartered show how far the industry has come,” OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos told Cointelegraph.
“We’re proud to be working with the first and only G-SIB directly integrated with a crypto exchange, proving that regulated, secure and transparent models are the future of digital assets,” he said.
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