- LMAX becomes the first client to onboard Standard Chartered’s MiCA-compliant digital asset custody solution.
- It follows the parties’ successful live digital asset prime brokerage trades.
LMAX Exchange Group Limited, a global fintech firm, has expanded its partnership with Standard Chartered PLC, a British multinational bank, for digital asset custody. On Wednesday, the parties announced the milestone, building on their live digital asset prime brokerage trades in July.
LMAX’s Onboarding in Standard Chartered’s Digital Asset Custody Platform
According to Standard Chartered, LMAX is its first client to onboard to its Luxembourg-based digital asset custody platform. It comes hot on the heels of the bank’s successful bid for Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) authorization in June.
The extension of the collaboration with LMAX came through Standard Chartered’s Dubai International Financial Center (DIFC) arm, regulated by the Dubai Financial Services Authority (DFSA), and its Luxembourg entity. It supports the demand for the fintech group’s growing institutional-grade digital asset business.
A Natural Progression of the Partnership
Ole Matthiessen, Global Head of Transaction Services & Digital Assets at Standard Chartered, highlighted that the digital asset custody platform enables LMAX to operate within a trusted, compliant rail that plugs seamlessly across markets and regulatory regimes. It makes it one of the few to successfully adapt to the post-MiCA full enforcement landscape in Europe, which has largely driven out unregistered players that couldn’t align their frameworks with the regulation’s strict requirements, especially on proof of reserves, regular reporting, periodic audits, and client asset segregation.
“By combining bank-grade custody in DIFC and Luxembourg with our broader trading and prime brokerage capabilities, Standard Chartered is helping to shape a connected, institutionalized digital asset ecosystem,” said Matthiessen. “We are pleased to partner with clients such as LMAX Group as they expand their digital asset proposition across markets.”
Meanwhile, David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Group, called their expanded partnership with Standard Chartered a “natural next step” after their July milestone. During that time, the parties piloted transactions involving a bank-grade digital asset intermediation model for spot Bitcoin (XBT/USD) and Ethereum (XET/USD) pairs with T+1 settlement through the bank’s UK branch.
The event marked the bank’s first digital asset credit intermediation trades executed through a digital asset prime brokerage model. Standard Chartered is one of the first global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) to execute such trades.
“The combination of their regulated custody capabilities in both the DIFC and Luxembourg provides us, and the industry more broadly, with robust, institutional-grade infrastructure to support the continued growth of our digital asset business and the evolving needs of our clients,” stated Mercer.
