Standard Chartered's Zodia Markets Acquires Elwood’s OTC Arm

Standard Chartered's digital asset trading business Zodia Markets is buying Elwood Technologies' OTC business.

Elwood Technologies offers digital asset execution and portfolio management services while its OTC trading business is regulated in Jersey.

Chris Lawn, chief executive of Elwood, said the deal will "strengthen" the firm's position as a "leading provider of execution and portfolio management software for global institutions that trade and manage digital assets."

"The sale of our OTC trading business supports Elwood’s strategic plan to build a world-class end-to-end EMS and PMS software platform and allows us to fully dedicate our resources to the SaaS business," he added.

Following the deal, a new entity known as Zodia Markets Jersey will be formed. Zodia Markets co-founder and chief executive, Usman Ahmad, said the deal will help his firm "to extend our offering to the clients we will welcome and provide our existing clients with a broader suite of capabilities and value.” 

“Building on our exceptional growth in the first half of the year, we are well-positioned to further capitalise on the global institutional demand for digital asset solutions," he added.

Standard Chartered operates within the digital asset space through via its stakes in Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, which provide custody and over-the-counter trading services.

Its ventures arm, SC Ventures, also launched tokenization platform Libeara in partnership with FundBridge Capital, leveraging Decentralized Ledger Technology (DLT) to transform government bonds into digital tokens, back in November 2023.

Last month, Standard Chartered revealed plans to launch a London-based spot cryptocurrency trading desk, which will be part of its FX trading unit.

“We have been working closely with our regulators to support demand from our institutional clients to trade Bitcoin and Ethereum, in line with our strategy to support clients across the wider digital asset ecosystem, from access and custody to tokenization and interoperability,” the bank said.

Earlier this year, the bank increased its year-end Bitcoin price forecast by 50% to $150,000 and its 2025 target to $250,000, citing the interest in spot Bitcoin ETFs. It also said it expects Ethereum to surpass $8,000 by the end of 2024 following the approval of spot Ether ETFs, and recently said Bitcoin could even hit an all-time high in August and could rally to $100,000 by the time of the US presidential election in November.