Standard Chartered and Circle Partner for Institutional USDC Access

Standard Chartered and USDC issuer Circle have developed a system that lets institutional clients mint and redeem the USDC stablecoin through a bank-led onboarding process.

Standard Chartered said Thursday it is the first Global Systemically Important Bank (G-SIB) to offer such services for USDC, bringing stablecoin access into the same risk, compliance and governance frameworks used in traditional banking. Clients will be able to mint and redeem the US dollar-backed stablecoin directly through StanChart's platform instead of opening separate accounts with Circle.

“By embedding USDC access directly within Standard Chartered’s institutional offering, Standard Chartered will bring together banking, custody, and digital asset services within one integrated offering,” the announcement said. The initial rollout will be through the Dubai International Financial Centre (DIFC).

The collaboration comes as stablecoin infrastructure is increasingly integrated into traditional banking systems, as issuers and financial institutions compete to control how digital assets such as USDC are distributed and accessed.

The capability supports institutional use cases such as onchain settlement, treasury, and liquidity management, while also providing the infrastructure to support payment-related use cases in the future.

While the service is initially rolling out through Standard Chartered’s operations in the DIFC, the bank said it intends to expand the capability to other markets, depending on regulatory approval and demand from clients.

Roberto Hoornweg, CEO of corporate and investment banking at StanChart, said the goal is to bring traditional banking standards into crypto markets as demand for regulated infrastructure increases.

“Ultimately, this is about enabling broader institutional participation in digital asset markets through the frameworks, controls and regulatory oversight that have long supported confidence in global financial markets,” he said.

The news came in the wake of Circle CEO Jeremy Allaire's statement defending USDC’s network effects against new stablecoin entrants like Open USD (OUSD), pointing to growing competition over distribution, liquidity and revenue models in the stablecoin market.

“With OUSD, we work closely with many of the founding members, and we expect that those same members will remain large USDC partners and customers,” he said on Wednesday.