DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia and one of the largest banks in Asia, will offer bitcoin, ethereum, bitcoin cash, and xrp trading as well as custody.
“Digital assets are poised to be the future of the digital economy of tomorrow.” Companies and investors can now leverage an integrated ecosystem of solutions to tap the vast potential of private markets and digital currencies with DBS Digital Exchange, a bank-backed digital exchange,” they say, adding:
“Through DBS Digital Exchange, SMEs and large corporates alike can also tap on a Security Token platform to efficiently raise capital through the digitisation of their securities and assets, enabling issuers to reach a broader base of investors who may not have traditionally had access to such tokens.”
The page appears to be down now, but we were able to find it on Google Cache, where it states that “DBS Digital Exchange is regulated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore and is backed by the leading Asian financial services group, DBS Bank.”
DBS say a variety of trading pairs will be available, including BTC/SGD | BTC/HKD | BTC/USD | BTC/JPY, BCH/SGD | BCH/HKD | BCH/USD | BCH/JPY, ETH/SGD | ETH/HKD | ETH/USD | ETC/JPY, XRP/SGD | XRP/HKD | XRP/USD | XRP/JPY,
They will charge 10bps in fees, but ordinary customers will not be able to access this unless they go through third parties, according to the bank.
“As members, DBS Digital Exchange only accepts financial institutions and professional market makers.” Individual investors can only gain access to the exchange through a member, such as DBS Vickers Securities (Singapore) Pte Ltd or DBS Private Bank.”
There are trading hours here, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., and DBS Bank will handle custody, with little information provided on how they will do so.
Finally, you can “upfront place cash and/or digital asset/s to trade in the Digital Exchange,” implying that you can deposit and withdraw bitcoin or eth as usual.
As a result, this is the first mainstream bank to provide such services for cryptocurrencies, which are continuing their march toward full integration with the financial sector as institutional investors become more interested.
