Standard Chartered is considering a restructuring that would fold parts of its majority-owned crypto custody subsidiary into the bank's existing digital asset operations, Bloomberg reported on Wednesday, citing people with knowledge of the discussions.

The discussions involve merging overlapping custody operations while allowing Zodia Custody to continue offering crypto custody as a standalone software-as-a-service platform, the sources said.

Standard Chartered originally established Zodia Custody in late 2020 in partnership with Northern Trust Corp., and the venture has since attracted minority institutional investors, including Emirates NBD Bank PJSC, National Australia Bank Ltd. and SBI Holdings Inc. 

It remains unclear whether these minority shareholders are involved in the merger plans, though Bloomberg sources said that an announcement could be made as early as this month.

Despite the potential shift in its corporate structure, Zodia Custody has maintained a scaling trajectory, operating seven offices across global hubs including London, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

The subsidiary last year secured a partnership with Galaxy Digital to provide institutional staking services in Europe, supporting Galaxy’s staked digital assets valued at $4.2 billion at the time. 

Standard Chartered has concurrently expanded its broader digital asset footprint through a series of internal and external initiatives.

In January, the bank moved to establish a crypto prime brokerage housed within its SC Ventures unit. 

This followed a November partnership with DCS Card Centre to support stablecoin-linked credit cards in Singapore. 

Most recently, the lender entered into a memorandum of understanding with South Korea’s Hana Financial Group to explore joint stablecoin ventures, shortly after reports emerged on March 13 that the bank is positioned to receive one of Hong Kong's inaugural stablecoin issuer licenses.