Despite the ongoing bear market in the cryptocurrency sector, Singapore’s largest bank DBS intends to expand its business in digital assets and crypto offerings.
According to a Financial Times report, the DBS bank in Singapore claims it wants to broaden its offerings to its 300,000 wealthy customers in Asia while also expanding its digital exchange.
The decline of the cryptocurrency industry, according to Piyush Gupta, chief executive of DBS, demonstrated the need for established, regulated financial institutions to provide products like digital asset trading for ordinary investors.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore granted the DBS bank’s brokerage division a cryptocurrency license last year, granting its rich and institutional clients invitation-only access to its DBS Digital Exchange.
Gupta claimed the bank has fewer than 1,000 users on the exchange but will soon make the service available to 300,000 of its affluent clients throughout Asia through its DBS mobile banking app, including private banks, accredited investors, other exchanges, and funds.
According to him, the mobile app will enable DBS to serve more clients while also streamlining and speeding up the process for customers.
The aspirations from DBS comes as Singapore struggles with its effort to become a crypto hub with a lot of debacles happening even with Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital filing for bankruptcy.
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Gupta noted “On the one hand, we want to be a global crypto hub. On the other hand, we’re also very worried about our domestic population getting burned with this speculative asset class.”
According to Gupta, the losses incurred by small-scale investors in the crypto crisis highlighted the significance of more reputable financial institutions providing services related to digital assets.
