DBS, the largest bank in Southern Asia, has announced its crypto trading services roll-out through Digibank, allowing its wealthy clients to trade in Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
DBS Enables Accredited Clients To “Conveniently Trade” Crypto
Singapore’s largest bank, DBS Group Holdings Ltd, has announced the increase in the crypto trading services to its members-only digital exchange. The announcement, which was made in a Tweet on Friday, stated:
“We have rolled out self-directed crypto trading via DBS digibank, enabling wealth clients who are accredited investors to conveniently trade cryptocurrencies on DDEx, one of the world’s first bank-backed digital exchanges.”
Accredited investors, clients whose investible assets are at least $246,000, will now be allowed to trade cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin(BTC), Ethereum(ETH), Bitcoin Cash( BCH), and XRP on the bank’s Digital Exchange (DDEx).
Additionally, the clients can access the bank’s crypto services after making a minimum investment of $500, unlike previously, when this option was only available to institutional and corporate investors, family offices, DBS Treasurers Private Clients, and the DBS Private Bank Clients.
Talking about the DBS self-directed investment service, the bank stated,
“Having cryptocurrency holdings makes it easier for clients to stay on top of their investments across traditional and alternative asset classes.”
The bank reportedly saw a 100% increase in its digital asset transaction volume between April and June. Notably, its Bitcoin transaction volumes increased nearly four times.
According to reports from Bloomberg, this growth may have triggered the bank to expand its Bitcoin and crypto trading services to an additional 100,000 wealthiest clients.
In early February this year, the CEO of DBS, Piyush Gupta, stated that the bank planned to launch a retail crypto trading desk by the end of 2022, improving access to the digital trading desk for its current clients in the first half of the year. The latest development confirms the bank’s commitment to allowing its clients to access crypto services.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore Tightens Regulations
The Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) released a statement earlier this month saying that retail investors should not invest in the asset class. Mr. Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Minister in charge of MAS, said:
“MAS has continued reiterating its warnings that retail investors should not trade in cryptocurrencies. The prices of cryptocurrencies fluctuate wildly, and investors stand to lose all the monies they have put into cryptocurrencies.”
However, after the warning, the MAS released its digital asset framework that would guide the country’s digital asset market between 2022 and 2025, where the regulator outlined its plans to “enable digital currency connectivity” through a program called Project Orchid.
In early June, the regulator’s Chief Technology Officer (CTO), Sopnendu Mohantry, corroborated MAS’s standpoint to be unrelentingly hard and brutal on the crypto sector. However, MAS wants to explore distributed ledger technology (DLT), asset tokenization, and cross-border payments.
Therefore, even as DBS expands its services into the broader crypto ecosystem and widens its services to many global investors, Singapore is yet to decide which route to take regarding the retail investors.
