DBS Bank’s Digital Exchange to Begin Trading Crypto ‘Next Week’

DBS Bank of Singapore has officially announced the arrival of its digital assets exchange, with trading to start next week.

The DBS Digital Exchange is 10% owned by Singapore's SGX stock exchange. It will also provide tokenization of securities and other assets, as well as bank-grade custody for digital assets.

The new exchange will facilitate spot exchanges from fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies and vice versa, said Piyush Gupta, DBS Group CEO on a media call, Thursday. 

Four fiat currencies (SGD, USD, HKD, JPY) will be tradable against four of the most established cryptocurrencies covering 70%-80% of the market, namely bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and XRP, Gupta added.

“We are ready to begin crypto trading as early as next week,” said Gupta. “Security token offerings may take a month or two to get started – but in summary we are ready to go.”

The security token offering part of the digital exchange will comprise 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.

“You can tokenize anything, you can tokenize a painting. But for now, we will be concentrating on financial assets.” Gupta said.

The third part is custody, which is said to be bank and institutional grade. This will be air-gapped cold storage that leverages all the existing cyber security tech at the bank, according to the CEO.

Interestingly, Swiss digital exchange SDX said this week it would also be building a crypto exchange in Singapore with Japan's SBI Holdings, slated for launch in 2022.

See also: Standard Chartered, Northern Trust to Launch Crypto Custody Service in the UK

The DBS exchange will only be open to institutional clients and accredited investors, Gupta said.

“We are excited to apply our strengths in market infrastructure and risk management to this venture," said Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX in a statement. "There are significant opportunities to bring trust and efficiency in price discovery to the global digital assets space. We look forward to working closely with DBS to advance Singapore’s standing as a multi-asset international financial center.”