Biggest Singaporean Bank Launches Exchange For Institutional Investors

The biggest Singaporean Bank, the DBS Group which called Bitcoin a ponzi scheme in the past, is now launching a crypto exchange for institutional users, as we can see in our crypto news today.

Three years after calling BTC a Ponzi scheme, the biggest Singaporean Bank, the DBS group decided to launch crypto exchange for institutional investors. The multinational financial services corporation announced the release of the digital asset trading venue and now the investment company Singapore Exchange, announced that it will take up a 10% stake in the platform.

Back in October, the DBS bank trialed the trading venue enabling institutional investors to access crypto assets. The bank also announced that they will start leveraging blockchain technology and will provide “ecosystems for fundraising through asset tokenization and secondary trading of digital assets, including cryptocurrencies.” DBS Digital Assets will provide three main services:

• Security Token Offerings which will allow issuance and trading of digital tokens
• Spot crypto exchange for fiat assets and cryptocurrencies like ETH, BTC, BCH, and XRP
• Digital custody services represent an institutional-grade digital custody solution that will have to meet the demand for secure custodial services under the current regulatory standards.

The DBS Group CEO Piyush Gupta said that Singapore is now the major financial hub in the world and that the country is preparing to “welcome the mainstream adoption of digital assets and currency trading.” The announcement by the bank informed that Singapore Exchange will have a 10% stake in the venue and SGX and DBS will continue “exploring the opportunities to deepen the liquidity, scale, and growth of Singapore’s capital markets in the growing area of digital assets and digital currencies.”

Despite showing support for the crypto industry, the DBS group displayed a lot of negative stances for BTC in the past. The former chief Information Officer David Gledhill said back in 2017 that Bitcoin is seen as a Ponzi Scheme. He argued that all transactions are expensive and the fees are hidden thanks to the complex crypto mechanisms while adding:

 “We don’t think DBS being in that game right now is going to create a competitive advantage for us.”

It looks like it took the bank three years to accept the changes and change their mind on crypto by also starting to develop their own trading venue. It’s worth noting that this is not the first case where BTC managed to change someone’s mind. People like Michael Saylor and Ray Dalio also choose BTC As of late.