Singapore’s renowned bank, DBS is now planning on expanding the crypto services to premier clients across Asia. The affluent clientele base amounts to around 300,000 in number.
This news comes during such a time when the crypto market continues to totter under turmoil.
Piyush Gupta, the chief executive of DBS, however, is of another opinion which reflects that this industry-wide bloodbath has in turn proved that established and regulated financial institutions should opt for crypto services along with start-ups that have been more embracing of the industry.
DBS’s brokerage arm has been granted a crypto license by The Monetary Authority of Singapore. This license allowed the bank to offer access to the DBS Digital Exchange to institutional and elite clients by invitation.
The exchange currently has members of around 1,000 in number however the service will be soon extended to more people through the mobile banking app of the DBS bank.
This move shall ensure that 300,000 premium clients of DBS across Asia have access to the service. Not only them, but accredited investors, private banks, exchanges and funds will also gain access through the app.
Developments Related To The DBS Exchange
The exchange will just not make the service accessible to more customers but will also make the entire process seamless and swift for its users.
Soon after the decision to start the crypto exchange, the period between April and June, the total number of trades on the DBS Digital exchange had increased by more than double.
The quantity of Ethereum sold on the platform rose 65% and the total volume of Bitcoin traded went up by four times.
DBS is Singapore’s largest bank with assets amounting to $686 billion (USD $488 billion) as of December 2021. It signed away about $1 billion to start other crypto ventures before it decided to launch one of its own.
Offering Crypto Supposedly Can Get Better Outcome
According to Gupta, well-established, regulated financial institutions could offer digital assets, not just start-ups. He is also of the opinion that these institutions are important enough to establish “guardrails” which would lead to “better outcomes”.
Gupta also opined that,
People look to us to be a pioneer in the space and to continue to push boundaries.
The plans of DBS in which stated investment group Temasek hold a stake of below 30% came during a time when Singapore is struggling in its strive to become a crypto hub.
Singapore, a country whose economy is dependent on financial services and trading is of the belief that with only innovation can its economy remain relevant.
In accordance with the same, MAS managing director Ravi Menon said in the past week that the regulator
would be taking steps to shield retail investors but Singapore’s digital asset strategy was indeed on the correct path.
Bitcoin was priced at $21,000 on the one-day chart | Source: BTCUSD on TradingView
Featured image from Express Computer, chart from TradingView.com
A recent survey by Seedly and Coinbase unveils that 57% of financially savvy Singaporeans own cryptocurrency, with nearly half expressing optimism for its future. While crypto adoption is on the rise, concerns around market volatility and regulation persist among non-crypto users.
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