Singapore’s largest bank DBS announced a partnership with Ethereum-based gaming platform The Sandbox to design an interactive metaverse experience – DBS BetterWorld – as part of its broader roadmap to explore Web 3 opportunities for its customers.
The latest deal marks the foray of the first Singaporean entity to collaborate with the Animoca Brands’ subsidiary as it joins DBS’ ambitious “SingaporeVerse,” a neighborhood on its virtual map that seeks to bring the culture of the city-state to life in the metaverse.
The official press release stated that DBS BetterWorld aims to highlight the importance of “building a better, more sustainable world, and inviting others to come alongside.” As part of the deal, DBS plans to acquire a 3×3 plot of the digital piece of real estate in The Sandbox’s metaverse – LAND – which will be developed with immersive elements.
Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS, said the metaverse tech could fundamentally transform the way banks interact with customers and communities. He further stated,
“Our partnership with The Sandbox and Animoca Brands marks the start of an exciting collaboration as we push the boundaries of what is possible in the metaverse. We also look forward to harnessing it as an additional innovative platform to spread the word on important ESG issues and to shine a spotlight on communities and partners doing good work to address them.”
The Southeast Asian financial group also said it will engage with partners and collaborators from the government, community, business, and technology spaces while exploring opportunities to showcase DBS BetterWorld with the recently launched digital platform, LiveBetter. The goal is to advance more eco-conscious living among its customers.
With the partnership, DBS will buy carbon offsets to ensure that the land and production on DBS BetterWorld will be carbon neutral.
The partnership comes just a day after The Sandbox’s Instagram profile was hacked. Reports suggested that the attackers tried to steal Bored Ape Yacht Club NFTs from several users on the social media platform.
After managing to bypass the firm’s two-factor authentication (2FA) and other security measures, the hackers changed the profile’s website URL to promote the fake giveaway.