Standard Chartered's SC Ventures takes a strategic stake in crypto market maker GSR — its first external investor in over a decade.

SC Ventures, the investment and fintech arm of Standard Chartered, has made a strategic investment in GSR, one of crypto's largest market makers — marking the firm's first external strategic shareholder since its founding in 2013. Financial terms were not disclosed.

The deal deepens a relationship that took shape last month, when GSR invested in Libeara, a tokenization platform backed by SC Ventures, as part of GSR's broader push into crypto capital markets. The cross-investment structure signals a tighter integration between traditional banking infrastructure and professional crypto liquidity.

For Standard Chartered, the move extends a pattern of deliberate crypto positioning — from custody to tokenization to now owning a slice of a top-tier market-making operation.