Standard Chartered Bank announced Tuesday that its subsidiary, Standard Chartered Bank (Hong Kong) Ltd. (SCBHK), has partnered with The Sandbox, a popular blockchain virtual gaming platform, “to create [a] metaverse experience.”
Standard Chartered is a leading global bank with 85,000 employees serving customers in close to 150 markets worldwide. It has 776 branches globally.
The bank explained that it is the first bank to acquire “virtual land at The Sandbox metaverse‘s Mega City district, a culture hub based on or inspired by Hong Kong talents.” The initiative is led by SC Ventures, Standard Chartered Group’s innovation, fintech investment, and ventures arm.
The announcement details:
SCBHK will actively engage its clients, partners, staff, and the tech community, to explore co-creation opportunities in this new and exciting space.
The bank aims to experiment and build new experiences for clients, as well as bring “the local sports and art communities into the metaverse,” the announcement adds.
Alex Manson, head of Standard Chartereds SC Ventures, commented:
For the past few years, we have been building business models in crypto, digital assets and see the rise of the metaverse as a critical milestone in the Web3.0 evolution.
Other major banks and financial services firms that have entered the metaverse include JPMorgan, HSBC, and Fidelity Investments. HSBC also partnered with The Sandbox to step into the metaverse, while JPMorgan and Fidelity chose Decentraland.
The metaverse is expected to grow significantly. Last month, Citi predicted that the metaverse could be a $13 trillion opportunity with 5 billion users by 2030. Global investment banks Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley both believe that the metaverse could be an $8 trillion opportunity.