A few months after the launch of DBS Digital Exchange, Singapore’s largest financial services provider has announced plans to launch a crypto trading platform. Investment holding Singapore Exchange has already shared that it will own 10% of the shares of the new trading platform.
According to the published document, DBS Group is going to work with digital assets in three main areas.
- Security Token Offerings – A regulated platform for the issuance and trading of digital tokens backed by financial assets, such as shares in unlisted companies, bonds and private equity funds.
- Digital Currency Exchange – Cryptocurrency trading that will facilitate spot exchanges from fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies and vice versa. The DBS Digital Exchange will offer exchange services between four fiat currencies (SGD, USD, HKD, JPY), and four of the most established cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and XRP.
- Digital Custody Services – An institution-grade digital custody solution to meet the increasing demand for secure custodial services tailored for digital assets under their prevailing regulatory standards. Leveraging on DBS’ experience in providing worldclass custody services for conventional assets, DBS’ digital custody services provides the custody of cryptographic keys that control digital assets on behalf of clients.
This company’s decision was explained by the CEO of DBS Group Piyush Gupta. He stated that due to Singapore’s status as a major financial hub, they are going to meet the demand for “digital asset adoption and cryptocurrency trading”.
The DBS Group and Singapore Exchange (SGX) will collaborate to provide liquidity for the future market, and to explore the potential and development of digital asset trading.
This news is especially interesting when you remember that just three years ago, CIO David Gledhill openly stated that his company is considering Bitcoin as another Ponzi scheme. He also criticized the technological shortcomings of bitcoin, mentioning the high cost and secrecy of transactions. However, it took several years for the company to completely rethink its approach to the cryptocurrency industry.
