Standard Chartered, a major global banking group, has deepened its relationship with cryptocurrency exchange OKX, becoming its institutional custodian in the European Economic Area (EEA).
Standard Chartered and OKX will launch a collateral mirroring program within the EEA, allowing local institutional investors to store cryptocurrencies directly under Standard Chartered’s control, OKX announced on Wednesday.
The launch marks an expansion of a pilot first launched in Dubai in April, which aims to allow financial institutions to store assets in global systemically important banks (G-SIBs) while mirroring balances to OKX for transactions.
The expansion of this program within the EEA strengthens OKX’s commitment to Europe after OKX secured a Maltese license under the European Market for Cryptoassets (MiCA) framework in early 2025.
How does the program work?
Prior to the partnership with Standard Chartered, OKX’s institutional customers primarily stored their cryptocurrencies on exchanges, while fiat transactions were processed through their regular banking partners.
OKX’s default custody option was an in-house solution, but the exchange also allowed financial institutions to use third-party custodians such as Copper and Komainu if they wanted to hold assets off-exchange.
The Standard Chartered integration will allow OKX’s institutional clients to store assets directly with major regulated banks, and OKX will be able to mirror those assets back into its trading system.
Confidence grows after October’s flash crash
OKX’s collaboration with Standard Chartered is critical to boosting confidence in the cryptocurrency ecosystem amid October’s market turmoil, when exchanges suffered $20 billion in liquidations on Friday.
Binance, the world’s largest cryptocurrency exchange by trading volume, has faced massive controversy since the crash, highlighting vulnerabilities in its price oracles and blaming the platform for millions of dollars worth of investor losses.
Related: Centralized exchanges face massive liquidation undercount allegations
“Recent events have reignited the ‘wild west’ narrative around cryptocurrencies, but partnerships like the one with Standard Chartered demonstrate how far the industry has come,” OKX Europe CEO Erardo Goos told Cointelegraph.
“We are proud to work with the first and only G-SIB to integrate directly with a cryptocurrency exchange, proving that a regulated, secure and transparent model is the future of digital assets,” he said.
magazine: Review: The Devil Takes Bitcoin, Mount Gox and the Wild History of the Silk Road
