The crypto market has been in its bearish phase since the end of last year. On one hand, investors have been making the most of the situation by accumulating coins. Weak hands, on the other hand, have been panic-selling.
As far as institutions are concerned, a host of them got liquidated, or cut down staff and had enforced other actions to tread through this rough phase. On the other side of the spectrum, nonetheless, a few institutions have been expanding their crypto services to cater to the need of investors.
DBS to expand digital asset offerings
In what is the latest development, Singapore’s largest bank—DBS—plans to expand its crypto offerings despite being in a bear market. Per a recent Financial Times report the bank wants to expand its digital exchange and offer services to more of its 300,000 wealthy clients in Asia. Piyush Gupta, the Chief Executive of the bank, said,
The crypto market downturn proved that established and regulated financial institutions, rather than just start-ups, should be offering products such as digital asset trading for retail investors.
Here it is worth recalling that the bank’s brokerage arm received a crypto license last year from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. As a result, access to the DBS Digital Exchange was given to its institutional and wealthy clients by invitation. Per Gupta,
The bank has less than 1,000 members on the exchange but would soon offer the service to 300,000 of its wealthy clients across Asia including private banks, accredited investors, other exchanges, and funds through its DBS mobile banking app.
The executive further revealed that the losses suffered by retail investors in the crypto crash underscored the importance of more established financial institutions offering digital assets services. Reportedly, the aggregate number of trades on DBS Digital Exchange has more than doubled from April to the end of June, while the quantity of Bitcoin bought on the exchange has risen nearly four times. Likewise, the quantity of Ethereum purchased has increased 65% in the same period.
Also Read: Investors reap 22% gains as Bitcoin tumbles: Here’s how
Singapore and crypto
Even though Singapore has been implementing new regulations with respect to crypto and digital assets, the nation is not anti-crypto. Alvinder Singh, team lead of the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s fintech ecosystem office recently said that because Singapore is a small country, any negative outcome in the digital asset field will have far-reaching consequences. However, becoming a crypto hub overnight is not their objective. Instead, they want to achieve the said goal over the medium term, in a responsible way.
Also Read: Singapore’s MAS mulling stricter rules for retail Bitcoin, crypto investors
Talking about the same to Financial Times, Gupta said that DBS had to support Singapore’s push into cutting-edge financial technology. He added,
“People look to us to be a pioneer in the space and to continue to push boundaries.”
Further elaborating on the challenges of the country’s regulators, Gupta said,
“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.”