According to CoinDesk, cryptocurrency storage provider Zodia Custody, a subsidiary of Standard Chartered, has announced a partnership with Parity Technologies to provide institutional support for the Polkadot blockchain. The collaboration aims to offer custody services for the Polkadot ecosystem, focusing on digital asset storage for financial institutions. Additionally, the partnership plans to provide staking of DOT, Polkadot's native token, to further expand the network's reach among institutions.

Zodia Custody is majority-owned by multinational bank Standard Chartered, with SBI Holdings and Northern Trust also among its shareholders. This gives the company significant influence in the context of institutional adoption of digital assets. Zodia Custody recently expanded its operations to Singapore. Polkadot's DOT token is currently the 13th largest cryptocurrency, with a market cap of around $5 billion, according to CoinMarketCap data. The token is trading just above $4 at the time of writing, having fallen below the $4 mark for the first time in three years this week due to a broad sell-off across the altcoin market.