According to @AltcoinDaily, Standard Chartered plans to launch a crypto prime brokerage, signaling potential expansion of bank-grade services for digital assets (source: Altcoin Daily on X, Jan 12, 2026). The post does not provide details on timing, jurisdiction, supported assets, or service scope, and it does not cite an official Standard Chartered statement (source: Altcoin Daily on X, Jan 12, 2026). In crypto markets, prime brokerage typically consolidates custody, execution, financing, and collateral management for institutions, helping reduce operational and counterparty risks versus bilateral exchange relationships (source: Investopedia, Prime Brokerage overview; Fidelity Digital Assets, Institutional Primer on Digital Asset Market Structure, 2023). Institutional flows are concentrated in BTC and ETH, which account for the bulk of AUM and regulated derivatives open interest among digital assets, making these pairs the key liquidity beneficiaries of bank-led infrastructure (source: CME Group BTC and ETH futures OI dashboards, 2024; CoinShares Digital Asset Fund Flows annual summary 2024). Traders can manage confirmation risk by waiting for an official Standard Chartered announcement and then tracking BTC and ETH spot volumes, CME futures basis, and perpetual funding rates to assess liquidity and leverage conditions after any announcement (source: CME Group market data guide; major exchange funding-rate methodology documents).

According to @lookonchain, MARA Holdings bought 400 BTC (about USD 46.31M) via FalconX roughly two hours ago and is reported to hold 52,850 BTC (about USD 6.12B), with an Arkham Intelligence address-explorer link provided for reference (source: @lookonchain; source: Arkham Intelligence). The stated USD amounts imply an average execution near USD 115,775 per BTC for the 400 BTC tranche, derived from the figures shared by @lookonchain (source: @lookonchain). Execution via FalconX indicates OTC routing intended to reduce exchange slippage and visible order-book impact for large crypto orders, as described in FalconX’s institutional prime brokerage materials (source: FalconX). Traders who track on-chain whale accumulation often monitor such sustained buys as signals of tightening liquid supply, a behavior documented in institutional research on whale accumulation metrics (source: Glassnode).