Circle teams up with Standard Chartered on institutional USDC minting and redemption

Standard Chartered has rolled out a new USDC minting and redemption service for institutional clients in partnership with Circle (CRCL), allowing eligible customers to access USDC through the bank without opening a direct Circle account. The lender said it is the first Global Systemically Important Bank licensed to provide this type of USDC service for institutions. Built with Circle, the regulated issuer of USDC, the offering is designed to bridge traditional banking and blockchain networks, enabling clients to move funds between conventional finance and digital assets through a single bank-managed setup. Standard Chartered said the service can support onchain settlement, treasury operations and liquidity management, with potential use cases in payments as the market develops. Banking, custody and digital-asset services are packaged together, giving clients access to digital assets under the same compliance, governance and risk frameworks used in its existing banking services. The product is initially available via the bank's Dubai International Financial Centre operations. Further country rollouts may follow, subject to local regulatory approvals. Both firms said demand is rising among financial institutions for regulated stablecoin infrastructure, with interest spanning payments, treasury work, settlement and cross-market cash management. Standard Chartered Corporate and Investment Banking CEO Roberto Hoornweg said digital assets are becoming a larger part of the financial system and institutional clients are seeking trusted services aligned with traditional finance standards. Circle Chief Commercial Officer Kash Razzaghi said the partnership aims to give institutions a dependable route to use stablecoins while maintaining expected compliance and risk controls. The announcement also drew renewed attention to Circle's shares. At the time of the update, CRCL traded around $67.47. Premarket indications showed the stock near $64.19, up about 3.6%. Circle's market capitalization was about $15.4 billion. Some investors have floated the question of a move toward $70, though the companies made no stock-price forecast and focused on the banking service. The central takeaway is expanded institutional access to USDC through a major international bank. Broader adoption and additional country launches could widen the reach of regulated stablecoin services across corporate clients.