The venture arm of the National Australia Bank of Australia - NAB Ventures - recently revealed its investment in Standard Chartered-backed Zodia Custody.
Without revealing the amount injected, NAB Ventures’ Managing Director Amanda Angelini pointed out that the investment in Zodia was based on several factors that revolved around their innovative approach, institution-grade safety, and strong work with regulators.
On the heels of the investment, Zodia is looking forward to onboard Australia’s native digital asset exchanges. In fact, several have already been moving assets into the institutional safekeeper’s platform in an attempt to shield themselves against stricter regulations that are likely to come into play from next year.
Elaborating on the latest development, Julian Sawyer, CEO of Zodia Custody, asserted that the incoming regulations will significantly change the crypto landscape in Australia, similar to Hong Kong and Japan. The executive added,
“This likely includes the segregation of assets, and requirements to hold them in cold storage — areas we are already way ahead of the curve on, having built our custody model on these principles while ensuring real-time access to move at the speed of the market and the highest levels of security.”
Zodia ventured into Australia last year. A new subsidiary called Zodia Custody Australia was simultaneously put to sea to target corporate and institutional customers to offer digital asset custody services.
A year back, Zodia Custody also raised $36 million via funding. Japan’s SBI Holdings led the aforementioned round. At that time it was revealed that Zodia would use the funding to add more digital assets under its purview, including staked Ether.
Parallelly, the custodian earmarked a part of the funds to develop its off-exchange settlement network and embark on geographic expansion. Alongside its current markets in Europe and Asia, Sawyer indicated that the firm was also interested in opportunities in the Middle East.
Leaving aside the latest development, it is interesting to note that institutional funds have been ushering into the crypto space of late. As reported earlier today, hedge fund and VC firm Pantera Capital expressed interest in purchasing $100 million in Bitwise’s spot Ether ETF shares.
