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Standard Chartered has onboarded LMAX Group as the first client of its Luxembourg digital asset custody platform following its Mica authorisation in June 2026. Photo:
Less than three months after securing its Mica authorisation in Luxembourg, Standard Chartered has onboarded the first client to its European digital asset custody platform. LMAX Group will use the bank’s regulated infrastructure in both Luxembourg and Dubai.
Standard Chartered is taking another step in the rollout of its digital asset activities in Luxembourg. The bank announced on 16 September that LMAX Group has become the first client to join its Luxembourg digital asset custody platform since it secured its Markets in Crypto-Assets (Mica) authorisation.
Under the agreement, Standard Chartered will provide LMAX Group with digital asset custody services through two jurisdictions: Luxembourg for Europe and the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC) for the Middle East. For Luxembourg, the first commercial relationship marks a shift from building the regulatory framework to putting the infrastructure into operation.
From Mica to first client
Standard Chartered obtained its Mica authorisation in Luxembourg in June, alongside an Electronic Money Institution licence. The bank had already identified Luxembourg as a European hub for its digital asset operations.
The Luxembourg authorisation covers services, including the custody and administration of crypto-assets on behalf of clients, as well as crypto-asset transfers. It provides Standard Chartered with a regulatory base from which to expand its digital asset activities across the European Union.
LMAX Group is now the first institutional client to make use of that infrastructure.
“Our Mica authorisation marked an important step in Standard Chartered’s digital asset strategy in Europe, and we are proud to welcome LMAX Group as the first client to join our Luxembourg platform,” said Margaret Harwood-Jones, chair of the board of Standard Chartered Luxembourg.
Beyond custody
The relationship between the two groups already extends beyond the custody of digital assets. Standard Chartered and LMAX Group announced in July that they had executed their first live digital asset prime brokerage trades. The arrangement combines Standard Chartered’s banking, credit and custody capabilities with LMAX Group’s institutional digital asset market infrastructure.
Expanding the partnership into custody and settlement therefore brings the architecture of institutional crypto markets another step closer to that of traditional financial markets, connecting execution, credit, settlement and custody within infrastructure designed for professional investors.
“The combination of their regulated custody capabilities in both the DIFC and Luxembourg provides us, and the industry more broadly, with robust, institutional-grade infrastructure,” said David Mercer, CEO of LMAX Group.
Keeping assets off exchanges
The two companies are already exploring another development: so-called off-exchange custody solutions. The concept is designed to allow institutional investors to access markets and liquidity without having to permanently hold their assets on the platforms where they trade.
Assets could instead remain with a regulated financial institution while still being available for trading activities. Such structures aim, among other things, to reduce the counterparty risk associated with holding digital assets directly on trading venues.
For Standard Chartered, Luxembourg is therefore becoming one of the European building blocks of a broader infrastructure designed to connect custody, settlement, credit and digital asset trading.
Source: delano.lu