SC's Crypto Arm has introduced a new offering that allows investors to earn income from their holdings

Standard Chartered's Crypto Arm, Zodia Custody, has introduced a new offering that allows cryptocurrency investors to earn income from their holdings through a process called staking. This move highlights the traditional finance giant's commitment to embracing the digital asset space and catering to the needs of institutional investors in the cryptocurrency market.

The financial giant's subsidiary, Zodia Custody, specializes in cryptocurrency custody services, ensuring the safe storage and management of digital assets for institutional clients. In a strategic move, Zodia Custody has partnered with OpenEden, a prominent blockchain technology company based in Singapore. This partnership has paved the way for the introduction of the "Zodia Custody Yield" program, which enables institutional investors to generate income from their cryptocurrency holdings.

OpenEden Labs, a subsidiary of OpenEden, expressed its enthusiasm for the collaboration with Zodia Custody. OpenEden's mission is to bring Treasury yields onto the blockchain for institutional clients. They aim to be the preferred partner for real-world asset (RWA) yield solutions, catering to exchanges, custodians, wallets, and decentralized finance (DeFi) protocols.

The Zodia Custody Yield program is designed to meet the increasing demand among institutional investors for transparent, liquid, and low-risk digital asset solutions. With this program, institutions gain access to real-world yields from US Treasury bills through the OpenEden platform. OpenEden ensures on-chain security and transparency for assets managed by regulated fund managers.

Jeremy Ng, a co-founder at OpenEden, highlighted the program's potential benefits, especially for stablecoin owners. He noted that there are billions of dollars worth of stablecoins in the market that could be deployed to generate yields for investors. This program offers a solution to put these assets to work efficiently.

OpenEden's co-founders emphasized the significant opportunity presented by these idle stablecoin assets. They aim to facilitate the entry of issuers and investors into the digital asset market by offering tokenized financial products that are both secure and transparent.

Zodia Custody's announcement of this service and its collaboration with OpenEden builds upon its position as the first bank-affiliated entity to provide digital asset custody services in Singapore. This demonstrates Standard Chartered's commitment to embracing the growing influence of digital assets and blockchain technology in the financial industry.

Earlier this year, Standard Chartered made noteworthy predictions about the price of Bitcoin (BTC). The bank suggested that the price of BTC could reach $50,000 within the year and potentially surpass $120,000 by the end of 2024. Geoff Kendrick, a leading foreign exchange analyst at Standard Chartered, has now revised this forecast, indicating a 20% "upside" compared to the bank's earlier projection.

This increased upside is attributed to the improved profitability of Bitcoin miners per BTC. As miners can sell fewer BTC while maintaining their cash inflows, the net supply of BTC is reduced. This reduction in supply is expected to drive up the price of the cryptocurrency. Kendrick's optimistic outlook reflects the evolving dynamics of the cryptocurrency market and its potential for significant price appreciation.

In conclusion, Standard Chartered's digital asset subsidiary, Zodia Custody, is introducing innovative solutions to cater to institutional investors in the cryptocurrency space. The partnership with OpenEden allows institutional clients to earn income from their cryptocurrency holdings, addressing the growing demand for transparent and secure digital asset solutions. Standard Chartered's bullish outlook on Bitcoin further underscores the bank's commitment to embracing the digital asset revolution and providing valuable insights to the market.