On Tuesday, Standard Chartered Bank announced that its subsidiary, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. (SCBHK), has partnered with The Sandbox a popular decentralized blockchain virtual gaming platform. The company further added that it has acquired virtual land at the latter’s metaverse Mega-City district, a culture hub based on or inspired by Hong Kong talents.

StanChart is the first bank to acquire virtual land in the district. SC Ventures, Standard Chartered Group’s innovation, fintech investment, and ventures arm have led the initiative. As per the bank, clients, partners, staff, and the tech community will be actively engaged by the bank to explore co-creation opportunities in this new area and exciting space. It has the aim of experimenting and building new experiences for clients, including bringing the local sports and art communities into the metaverse. to enter the metaverse Standard Chartered Bank has become the latest major bank. According to the announcement, the bank aims to experiment and develop new experiences for clients and bring the local sports and art communities into the metaverse.

Mary Huen, chief executive of Standard Chartered, Hong Kong further added their involvement in the metaverse will reimagine their relationship with existing and potential clients on this new platform and will enhance their approach towards client journeys. Acquiring virtual land in Mega-City gives a natural choice for the Bank with its distinctive Hong Kong theme that perfectly fits with strengthening its presence in Hong Kong, whether physical or virtual.

To make an investment in metaverse Standard Chartered joined with HSBC, CaixaBank's Imagin, Siam Commercial Bank, and JPMorgan. This may lead to a thriving virtual economy. Analysts from Citibank believe that by 2030 it could value at $13 trillion.

JPMorgan, HSBC, and Fidelity Investments are other major banks and financial services firms that have entered the metaverse. To enter the metaverse HSBC also partnered with The Sandbox. JPMorgan and Fidelity partnered with Decentraland for the same purpose. As per prediction made by Citi last month that by 2030 metaverse could be a $13 trillion opportunity with 5 billion users. metaverse could be an $8 trillion opportunity believed both by Global investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

About Standard Chartered

Standard Chartered is a leading global bank with 776 branches globally. It serves customers to 150 markets worldwide and consists of 85,000 employees. According to the head of Standard Chartered’s SC Ventures Alex Manson, the company was focussing on business models in cypto, and digital assets and sees the rise of the metaverse as a critical milestone in Web3.0 evolution for the last few years.

Indrani bose

CBW - External Analyst

INDIA