Standard Chartered, a British financial services company, is moving into blockchain technology with two patent applications published in the spring of 2021 for managing digital assets with a custodian. In August 2021, Standard Chartered announced that it would be partnering with Chinese fintech company Linklogis to create a trade finance platform for supply chain financing, based in Singapore. Standard Chartered had previously worked with the Ant Group, but it may not have as much of a foothold in the Chinese market with its new platform given Alibaba’s substantial patent portfolio covering blockchain technologies for supply chain and asset management. Still, custodian systems for decentralized finance (DeFi) have been of interest for groups hoping to secure regulatory approval and more widespread adoption of their blockchain platforms. By attempting to patent a custodian system, Standard Chartered may be able to come out on top — that is, if it doesn’t run into 101 rejections. We anticipate that the group will continue moving forward with its platform and take advantage of its patent positioning. Keep up with progress in this sector with the Cryptocurrency Patent Forecast®.