Standard Chartered and SBI Holdings Set up $100M Crypto Fund to Invest in DeFi, Tokenization, and More

Reported by The Block, SC Ventures, the investment arm of the Standard Chartered bank, and SBI Holdings, the Japanese financial conglomerate, have partnered to set up a $100 million crypto vehicle in the United Arab Emirates.

The vehicle, in the form of a joint venture, plans to invest in crypto across areas such as decentralized finance, tokenization, infrastructure, payments and the metaverse, the two companies said Thursday. It aims to invest globally, covering seed to Series C funding rounds.

The SC Ventures and SBI Holdings joint venture plans to make "strategic and minority investments" in crypto startups, said Alex Manson, CEO of SC Ventures, in a statement. "The Joint Venture will leverage SC Ventures' experience in digital assets through our ventures, such as Zodia Custody and Zodia Markets, and through our investments in fintechs like Ripple and Metaco," he added.