Singapore’s largest bank DBS sets up crypto exchange platform

After anticipating its plans in October, DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, is establishing a new cryptocurrency exchange division called DBS Digital Exchange.

Announced on Thursday, the venture is also backed by SGX, Singapore’s largest derivatives and asset exchange, which owns a 10% stake in the crypto platform.

The crypto exchange will only be accessible to institutional and accredited investors, who will be able to trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and XRP.

In addition, DBS Digital Exchange will provide a platform for tokenizing assets such as shares in unlisted companies, bonds and private equity funds. It will be deeply integrated into the Asian banking system, allowing customers to deposit and buy cryptocurrencies with Singapore dollars, U.S. dollars, Hong Kong dollars and the Japanese yen. DBS will also offer a custodial service to store cryptocurrencies on behalf of clients.

DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta said, “For Singapore to become even more competitive as a global financial hub, we have to prepare ourselves to welcome the mainstream adoption of digital assets and currency trading.”

The collaboration with Singapore Exchange on this venture will help deepen the liquidity and scale of Singapore’s digital asset markets. “There are significant opportunities to bring trust and efficiency in price discovery to the global digital assets space,” said Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX.

Singapore is becoming an important hub for institutional cryptocurrency trading. Financial giants like SBI are also planning on launching a competing offering to DBS, while existing cryptocurrency platforms like OKCoin are setting up local subsidiaries.