DBS has Strong Interest in Cryptocurrencies

The bank is seeing more traction for its crypto assets business, which provides cryptocurrency trading and digital custody for accredited investors.

Daily trading value on DBS’ digital exchange has grown tenfold since its launch to reach $30-40 million, with an investor base of 120 accredited investors and some S$80 million in digital assets under custody, DBS chief Piyush Gupta said at a media briefing last week as it announced its first-quarter results.

I do think given the amount of interest in all the four cryptos that we trade now, that interest is quite high. And therefore, I do think it will pick up. But whether it picks up to tens of millions, or hundreds of millions of income over the next few years, it’s hard to say. So my thinking is, we should get in there, figure it out and grow and then we’ll get a better sense for how big this could be in time,» Gupta said, adding that the bank has a pipeline of hundreds of customers.

The DBS Digital Exchange offers exchange services between SGD, USD, HKD, JPY, and four of the most established cryptocurrencies: bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and XRP. Gupta said the bank would be scaling the business in subsequent quarters by issuing security tokens and extending the exchange’s trading hours, which currently works during Asian trading hours, to round-the-clock.

Earlier this month, the bank also announced the development of Partior – an open industry platform with Temasek and J.P. Morgan that aims to reimagine and accelerate value movements for payments, trade, and foreign exchange settlement.