Zodia Markets, the crypto trading firm majority-owned by Standard Chartered (STAN), has raised $18.25 million led by Pharsalus Capital. The Series A funding round will be used to support Zodia's international expansion effort and further develop its stablecoin payments services, according to an announcement on Monday . Zodia is aimed at financial institutions, offering them a combination of wholesale finance and 24/7 digital asset trading, to "reengineer traditional foreign exchange capital flows with real time stablecoin settlement across borders," CEO Usman Ahmad said in the announcement. "Institutional capital shouldn’t have to wait for banking hours or be held back by manual workarounds", Ahmad added. Stablecoins are crypto tokens pegged to the value of traditional financial assets, normally fiat currencies. Free from the often volatile price swings that afflict a lot of cryptocurrencies, stablecoins allow traders to hold capital in the digital asset ecosystem and be sure that it will maintain a consistent value. They have been a central part of evolving regulation of digital assets, with major jurisdictions such as the U.S. and Hong Kong introducing stablecoin regulatory regimes. Zodia's Series A funding round also included contributions from Circle Ventures, The Operating Group and XVC Tech.
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