SINGAPORE’S BIGGEST BANK BETS BIG ON CRYPTO

Cryptocurrencies’ crash in recent months proved that established and regulated financial houses, not just start-ups, should offer cryptocurrency platforms and services, Piyush Gupta, CEO of DBS, Singapore’s biggest bank, told the Financial Times. 

Trusting larger institutions that can implement “guard rails” for crypto speculators will better protect players and help stabilize crypto values, he said. 

DBS’s brokerage division was licensed last year by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) and now invites select clients to use the services of the DBS Digital Exchange. 

The exchange has only about 1,000 users now but soon the bank will offer crypto services to 300,000 of its wealthiest Asian clients, Gupta said.  

The government of Singapore, which owns almost 10 percent of DBS, has long sought to emerge as a global crypto hub.  

Last year’s collapse of Three Arrows and Terraform Labs, both Singapore-based crypto ventures, cast a shadow over MAS’s regulatory savvy.  

The agency has since pledged to protect investors.  

“We want to be a global crypto hub [but] we’re also very worried about our domestic population getting burned by this speculative asset class,” Gupta said.