DBS Bank, Singapore’s largest bank, has announced that it will expand its cryptocurrency services to 300,000 wealthier customers in Asia.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore last year granted a cryptocurrency license to DBS’s brokerage arm, allowing it to offer institutional and wealthy clients access to its DBS digital exchange.
While the exchange currently has about 1,000 members, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta said the bank will soon offer the service through its DBS mobile banking app. This will give it access to its 300,000 wealthy clients across Asia, including private banks, accredited investors and other exchanges and funds.
Apart from DBS being able to offer more services to its customers, the app will also make the process smoother and faster for customers, Gupta said.
DBS Digital Exchange Doubles Trading
Singapore’s largest bank DBS, with total assets of $686 billion ($488 billion) as of December 2021, gave up about 10 percent before launching its own crypto exchange, said Gupta, who has been CEO since 2009. billions in upstart cryptocurrency exchanges.
The total number of transactions on DBS Digital Exchange more than doubled between April and June, with ethereum sales up 65 percent, while the total amount of bitcoin transactions on the platform nearly quadrupled.
Institutions lead to better outcomes
Gupta believes that the downturn in the crypto market shows that established, regulated financial institutions should offer digital asset products and services, not startups.
The chief executive said the agencies were necessary to build “guardrails” that would lead to “better outcomes”.
“What we really need is some kind of cheque or driver’s license to make sure [retail investors] Understand the risk,” said Zennon Kapron, director of financial technology research and advisory group Kapronasia. “Whether that comes from banks like DBS is another question. “
While Gupta has personally changed his mind and believes that DBS can safely and effectively deliver encrypted products and services to consumers, “regulators don’t necessarily see it that way,” he said.
Despite its efforts to become a global cryptocurrency hub, Singapore is also working to protect investors in the face of several high-profile local failures such as Three Arrows and Terraform Labs.
“On the one hand, we want to be the global crypto hub,” Gupta said. “On the other hand, we are also very concerned that our domestic population will be burned by this speculative asset class,” he added.
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