The Bank That Called Bitcoin a Ponzi, Has Now Launched A Crypto Exchange For Institutional Investors

A few months following the soft-launch of the DBS Digital Exchange, the Singaporean multinational banking and financial services corporation announced the release of its digital asset trading venue. In addition, the investment holding company Singapore Exchange has announced it will take a 10% stake in the platform.

DBS Digital Assets Officially Announced

CryptoPotato reported in late October that DBS Bank has successfully trialed its trading venue enabling institutional investors to access cryptocurrency assets. 

Earlier today, the banking institution officially announced that it will leverage blockchain technology to “provide an ecosystem for fundraising through asset tokenization and secondary trading of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.” DBS Digital Assets will have three main services:

1. Security Token Offerings (STOs), allowing the issuance and trading of digital tokens backed by financial assets.
2. A spot cryptocurrency exchange with four fiat currencies (SGD, USD, HKD, and JPY) and four of the “most established cryptocurrencies” – Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), and Ripple (XRP).
3. Digital Custody Services – “an institutional-grade digital custody solution to meet the increasing demand for secure custodial services tailored for digital assets under their prevailing regulatory standards.” The platform will leverage DBS’ experience for this particular service. 

DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta said that Singapore has become a major global financial hub and that the country has prepared to “welcome the mainstream adoption of digital assets and currency trading.”

The announcement also informed that Singapore Exchange (SGX) will take a 10% stake in the venue. As a result, SGX and DBS will “explore the opportunities to deepen the liquidity, scale, and growth of Singapore’s capital markets in the growing area of digital assets and digital currencies.”

A Massive Change Of Heart For Bitcoin?

Despite being proactive and supportive of the cryptocurrency industry now, DBS Group has displayed serious negativism for bitcoin in the past. The bank’s former Chief Information Officer David Gledhill said in 2017 that “we see bitcoin as a bit of a Ponzi scheme.”

He argued that all BTC transactions are “incredibly expensive” and “all the fees are hidden through the crypto-mechanisms.” Moreover, he added: “We don’t think DBS being in that game right now is going to create a competitive advantage for us.”

Yet, it seems that it has taken about three years for the giant bank to completely change its mind on “that game” and develop its own crypto trading venue for institutional investors.

It’s worth noting that this is far from being the first case where bitcoin has managed to change someone’s mind. Previous examples include MicroStrategy’s Michael Saylor and, more recently, the prominent traditional investor – Ray Dalio.

Featured image courtesy of Bloomberg