Standard Chartered adds USDC minting through banking

• Standard Chartered launched bank-led USDC minting and redemption services for institutional clients in partnership with Circle.
• The service allows institutions to access USDC through Standard Chartered's banking platform without opening separate Circle accounts.
• The rollout begins in Dubai's DIFC, with expansion to other markets planned subject to regulatory approvals and client demand.

Standard Chartered and Circle have launched a bank-led service allowing institutional clients to mint and redeem USD Coin (CRYPTO:USDC) directly through the bank's platform, with the initial rollout taking place in the Dubai International Financial Centre.

The bank said it is the first Global Systemically Important Bank to provide institutional USDC minting and redemption within its existing banking, compliance and risk management framework, removing the need for clients to open separate accounts with Circle.

“By embedding USDC access directly within Standard Chartered’s institutional offering, Standard Chartered will bring together banking, custody, and digital asset services within one integrated offering,” the companies said.

The service is designed to support institutional use cases including onchain settlement, treasury management and liquidity management, while Standard Chartered said future payment-related applications could also be supported, and the bank plans to expand the service into additional markets subject to regulatory approval and client demand.

Standard Chartered said the initiative aims to provide regulated access to digital assets for institutional customers, while the company's share price was unchanged following the announcement.

The launch comes as banks and stablecoin issuers increasingly compete to provide regulated infrastructure for digital asset services and expand institutional access to blockchain-based financial products.

The announcement also follows comments from Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire, who said the company expects existing partners supporting Open USD (OUSD) to remain significant USDC partners despite increasing competition in the stablecoin market.