Standard Chartered, a leading global banking group, is strengthening its partnership with cryptocurrency exchange OKX by becoming its institutional custodian in the European Economic Area (EEA).
On Wednesday, OKX announced that it and Standard Chartered have launched a collateral mirroring program in the EEA, enabling local institutional clients to hold their crypto assets directly in Standard Chartered’s custody.
This rollout expands a pilot program first introduced in Dubai in April, which allows institutions to store assets with a globally systemically important bank (G-SIB) while mirroring balances on OKX for trading purposes.
The EEA expansion highlights OKX’s continued commitment to Europe, following the exchange’s receipt of a Maltese license under the EU’s Markets in Crypto-Assets (MiCA) framework earlier in 2025.
How the program works:
Previously, OKX’s institutional clients primarily held their crypto on the exchange, with fiat transactions facilitated through traditional banking partners.
With Standard Chartered’s integration, OKX’s institutional clients can now hold their assets directly with a major regulated bank, while OKX mirrors those holdings within its trading system.
Building trust after October’s flash crash
The partnership comes at a critical time for confidence in the crypto market. In October, the ecosystem experienced significant turmoil, with exchanges seeing $20 billion in liquidations in a single day.
Binance, the world’s largest crypto exchange by trading volume, has faced intense scrutiny following the crash, with questions raised about the reliability of its price oracles and accusations of investor losses worth millions.
“Recent events have reignited the ‘Wild West’ narrative around crypto, but partnerships like ours with Standard Chartered show how far the industry has come,” OKX Europe CEO Erald Ghoos told Cointelegraph.
He added, “We’re proud to collaborate with the first and only G-SIB directly integrated with a crypto exchange, demonstrating that regulated, secure, and transparent models are the future of digital assets.”
