The bank has secured approval from Dubai’s Virtual Assets Regulatory Authority to let eligible clients buy and sell the two cryptocurrencies directly through their existing Standard Chartered accounts.

Standard Chartered has launched spot cryptocurrency trading for wealth clients in the UAE, allowing them to buy and sell Bitcoin and Ether through their bank accounts rather than through separate wallets or third-party platforms.

The service is initially limited to clients classed as Professional Investors in the UAE. The bank plans to extend it to other markets over time. It said the launch is a first for the group globally and makes it the first international bank in the UAE to offer such a service.

Trades are executed within the bank’s own infrastructure, with Standard Chartered handling custody and settlement in what it describes as a closed-loop model. The offering combines the bank’s Wealth and Retail Banking and Corporate and Investment Banking divisions with Zodia Markets, a digital asset brokerage backed by the group’s venture arm, SC Ventures.

The move takes the bank’s wealth clients from indirect to direct ownership. It already offers them cryptocurrency exchange-traded funds through its cash equities platform, and crypto exposure through structured products and over-the-counter derivatives.

It also follows a run of institutional launches. On 3 September 2026, Standard Chartered began offering Bitcoin and Ether spot trading to institutional clients through its Dubai International Financial Centre entity, which is regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority. The bank first offered deliverable spot crypto trading to institutional clients through its UK branch in July 2025 and launched digital asset custody in the UAE in September 2024. Its wider digital asset business includes the tokenisation platform Libeara.

Standard Chartered is not alone in bringing crypto into the UAE banking relationship. Domestic lender RAKBANK offers Bitcoin trading to its Islamic banking customers through its mobile app via Bitpanda, a VARA-regulated broker. Standard Chartered’s model differs in keeping custody and settlement in-house. Non-bank platforms are also moving in, with Capital.com securing a virtual asset licence from the UAE’s Capital Market Authority in August to offer spot crypto trading.