Singapore's DBS Bank Aims To Expand Bitcoin Services

DBS Group Holdings is the largest bank in Singapore and has recently announced that they plan to expand their Bitcoin and cryptocurrency services to 300,000 of its wealthiest clients. As of the end of 2021, DBS holds $488 billion in total assets. The bank currently has less than 1,000 members on the exchange.

The expansion includes an upgrade for their mobile app to be easier to manage. The upgrade will also allow clients to manage digital assets on the app. The clients of DBS include accredited investors, private banks, and exchanges. These clients, primarily from Asia, already manage funds on the app but will now have the ability to manage digital assets like Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.

Piyush Gupta, the bank’s CEO since 2009, mentioned that the recent downturn was one of the main reasons for investing in an infrastructure upgrade. He said he believes that the space needs established and regulated institutions offering more services, more so than start-up companies. 

The bank’s brokerage arm last year received a cryptocurrency license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, allowing its institutional and wealthy clients access to its DBS Digital Exchange by invitation.

Gupta was quoted saying, “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.” The bank will continue evaluating how to manage this balancing act of offering access to more assets while protecting their clients.

“People look to us to be a pioneer in the space and to continue to push boundaries,” Gupta said in his interview with the Financial Times.

DBS has reported a doubling in transactions from April to June and a quadrupling of Bitcoin transactions in particular.