UAE Gets First Major Bank Crypto Trading Desk from Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered has announced it will offer Bitcoin and Ethereum trading to institutions in the UAE. This makes it the first major global bank of its size to provide this service in the country.

The trading service will sit on top of the crypto storage service already offered by the bank in the UAE. Approved clients can buy and sell actual Bitcoin and Ethereum, priced in US dollars, using the same electronic trading systems they already use for other types of trading with the bank.

This is not a new development, but rather an expansion of the service Standard Chartered has already built in the UK. The bank launched this institutional Bitcoin and Ethereum trading service through its UK branch back in July 2025.

Standard Chartered's move into crypto trading marks a bigger shift happening in banking overall. Banks are no longer just helping move regular money in and out of crypto exchanges, but now offering actual crypto trading services themselves.