It appears a lot of Singaporean companies are taking a pro-stance on Bitcoin and digital assets in general. Earlier this month, the government of Singapore supported blockchain development with an investment of $9 million.
Today, Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, has launched its cryptocurrency exchange division known as DBS Digital Exchange. The new division is backed by Singapore’s largest derivatives and asset exchange, SGX. SGX also owns a 10% in the crypto exchange.
DBS Digital Exchange is only for the big players. It will only be accessible to accredited and institutional investors, who will be able to trade popular digital assets like Bitcoin, Ether, Ripple, and Bitcoin Cash. Furthermore, the exchange will allow users to tokenize assets such as shares, bonds, and private equity funds.
Owing to the bank’s current reach and clientele base, DBS is expected to become an integral part of the Asian banking system. Customers will be able to deposit and buy digital assets with Singapore dollars, US dollars, Japanese yen, and Hong Kong dollars.
Singapore hopes to become a major financial hub, and as the DBS Group CEO, Piyush Gupta pointed out, this move will help prepare the country. Gupta said:
For Singapore to become even more competitive as a global financial hub, we have to prepare ourselves to welcome the mainstream adoption of digital assets and currency trading.