DBS Reports Progress on Digital Exchange

The Singapore bank, one of the first traditional lenders in the region to launch its own digital exchange, now has S$100 million in digital assets in custody.

I’m quite pleased, it is going quite well,» chief executive Piyush Gupta said on Tuesday during a briefing with analysts after presenting the bank’s second-quarter 2021 financial results, Blockworks reported.

The exchange – DDEx – now has around 400 clients and did around $133 million in transactions during the quarter, Gupta said. Its assets under custody are also up 60 percent since May, when it had an investor base of 120 clients and some S$80 million in digital assets under custody.

At the same time, Gupta said his target was to grow the digital exchange’s investor base to about 1,000 customers this year, adding that he expects the volume to pick up once the exchange extends its trading hours past the Singapore business day.

DDEx launched in December 2020 with an initial offering that covered cryptocurrency trading of bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and XRP, now expanded to include digital stocks and bonds. In May 2021, the bank launched a crypto trust offering that combined wealth planning services with emerging digital currencies.

Overall, the bank posted a record-high profit of S$3.71 billion ($2.75 billion) for the first half of 2021, marking 54 percent year-on-year growth.