Standard Chartered’s investment arm, SC Ventures, and Japanese financial conglomerate SBI Holdings announced a joint venture to establish a $100 million crypto investment vehicle in the United Arab Emirates.
The venture will focus on investing in various crypto areas, including decentralized finance, tokenization, infrastructure, payments, and the metaverse.
It will invest globally, targeting startups in their seed to Series C funding rounds.
The news comes as the crypto market shows signs of recovery, with Bitcoin trading at about $36,800 and seeing a year-to-date gain of over 120%.
The joint venture aims to make strategic and minority investments in crypto startups, leveraging SC Ventures’ experience and investments in digital assets and fintechs like Ripple and Metaco.
This announcement also coincides with growing interest in crypto, possibly driven by the potential approval of a spot Bitcoin ETF in early 2022.
