Kenanga acquires stake in Malaysia’s second-largest crypto exchange

TL;DR Breakdown:

• Kenanga has acquired a stake in one of three digital currency exchanges licensed in Malaysia.
• The acquisition comes as part of the bank’s plan to expand its financial services to include crypto assets.

Kenanga Investment Bank has reportedly acquired a stake in Tokenize Xchange, one of the leading Malaysian-licensed cryptocurrency exchanges, according to a press statement on Monday. The bank has been looking to develop a digital ecosystem for financial products. The development today can be seen as part of its broader effort to provide several financial products like cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

Kenanga now owns a stake in the crypto exchange

According to the announcement, the investment bank reached a conditional agreement to acquire a 19 percent stake in the Malaysian crypto exchange. The acquisition was made through the bank’s private equity division known as Kenanga Private Equity Sdn Bhd. Kenanga bank has several investments in many financial companies. However, this is probably the first crypto-related company it will deal with. This follows their interest in crypto assets.

“Our interest in digital assets goes beyond Bitcoin and other commonly traded cryptocurrencies. We believe that the technology behind digital assets is very powerful, and the emergence of digital assets in the future is inevitable,” one of the bank’s executives,  Datuk Chay Wai Leong, commented.

Malaysia’s licensed exchange

The crypto exchange, Tokenize Xchange, was initially established in Singapore around 2018. However, it expanded to Malaysia to focus on the local market. Per the announcement, Tokenize Malaysia among the few exchanges licensed by the country’s regulator (SC) as a Digital Asset Exchange (DAX). By traded market share, Tokenize is reportedly the second-largest cryptocurrency exchange operating in the country.

As Cryptopolitan reported, Tokenize was approved by the regulator in April, during the COVID-19 rampage. Apart from Tokenize, Sinegy Technologies, and Luno Malaysia, are the two other regulated crypto exchanges in Malaysia.