Standard Chartered now offers spot trading in bitcoin and Ethereum to institutional clients in the United Arab Emirates, Reuters reported. The launch makes Standard Chartered the first global systemically important bank to offer institutional clients spot cryptoasset trading in the UAE, according to the report.

Institutional clients can buy and sell bitcoin and Ethereum with physical delivery of the assets through the bank’s electronic trading channels. Standard Chartered has integrated the service into its existing infrastructure, allowing clients to conduct cryptoasset transactions through the same interfaces they use for foreign exchange trading.

Spot trading involves buying or selling the cryptoassets themselves with delivery, the statement said. That differs from derivatives transactions, in which parties enter into contracts whose value depends on the price of an underlying asset.

Clients can settle trades through a custodian of their choice, including Standard Chartered’s own digital asset custody solution.

The service complements the bank’s UAE custody business, which Standard Chartered launched in September 2024, Reuters noted. Institutional clients can now use the bank’s infrastructure both to store digital assets and to conduct spot transactions in them.

Standard Chartered’s cryptocurrency forecasts for 2028-2030

Standard Chartered analysts, including Geoffrey Kendrick, the bank’s head of digital assets research, have forecast substantial growth in decentralized finance and real-world asset tokenization projects.

The bank expects the tokenized asset market to expand to $4 trillion by the end of 2028. Against that backdrop, its analysts forecast that Chainlink will rise to $200 by 2030.

The analysts have compared Ethereum with Amazon circa 2001 and forecast that its price will reach $40,000.

For Aave, the bank has set a target price of $3,500 by the end of 2030, citing growth in decentralized finance, broader adoption of real-world assets and the expansion of onchain lending as the main drivers.

The analysts expect Uniswap to rise roughly 40-fold to $100 by the end of 2030. They also forecast that Morpho will reach $60 by 2030 amid a tokenization boom.

Source: Incrypted