TL;DR Breakdown
- DBS begins offering crypto services
- Other financial firms talking about crypto
DBS private bank, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency-friendly bank, has announced its decision to start offering crypto trust services to clients due to an increase in demand for cryptocurrencies.
Bloomberg, who announced DBS’s new offering, disclosed that the trust solution would be Asia’s first of a kind initiative and would build on the bank’s digital exchange (DDEX), which was launched last year.
The new initiative would enable private banking customers to invest, hold and manage their digital assets in a structured and secure way, the bank said. Also noting that the trust solution at launch would only support four digital assets, namely Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and XRP.
Expressing his delight with the launch of a trust solution for the asset class Joseph Poon, group head of DBS Private Bank, said the bank’s trust structure allows its clients to easily hold these assets, with a peace of mind that their assets are secured and safely managed and passed to their intended designation.
Lee Woon Shiu, Regional Head of Family Office, Wealth Planning and Insurance Solutions at the Bank, also noted that clients could be assured that their assets kept in DDEX would be supervised by licensed professional trustees of DBS and would be secured and well taken care of by experienced professionals.
Aside DBS more financial institutions mulls offering crypto service
It is important to note that the bank is not the only traditional financial organization to have venture into offering crypto services. Due to the increase in the adoption of digital currency, several financial institutions have also announced their decisions to offer crypto offerings.
Traditional financial companies like Goldman Sachs Group Inc, MicroStrategy, and Morgan Stanley have been increasing their crypto offerings and portfolio. In contrast, UBS Group AG is reportedly developing plans to unveil a crypto investment for its wealthy clients. Notably, DBS recently partnered with JPMorgan Chase & Co and Temasek in launching a blockchain payments solution.
Notably, as of time of writing in its custody, DBS digital exchange holds 80 million Singapore dollars in assets, with trading volumes up 10-fold to SGD 30 – 40 million. It also currently has over 120 clients and a robust pipeline awaiting onboarding.
Also, DBS announced that the digital exchange is working on efforts to conduct its first security token offering and to expand operating hours from Asian time zones to round-the-clock.
