DBS Group Holdings, Singapore’s largest bank, is looking to expand its bitcoin and cryptocurrency services to 300,000 of its wealthiest users, per a report from the Financial Times.
In particular, DBS wants to expand its existing digital assets exchange to these larger clients which currently boasts nearly 1,000 users. The bank’s targeted clientele in Asia consists of private banks, accredited investors and other exchanges, all of which can manage funds through the bank’s mobile application. Now, DBS plans to upgrade its app, allowing clients to also manage digital assets.
Indeed, DBS said an updated version of the app will make the process “less clunky” and enable the necessary scalability to support a larger user base, per the report.
Piyush Gupta, the bank’s CEO, explained that the market downtrend influenced the bank’s decision to expand its infrastructure due to a need for consumer protections. DBS believes the ecosystem needs established and regulated institutions offering more services, rather than start-up companies.
“On the one hand, we want to be a global crypto hub,” Gupta said, per the report. “On the other hand, we’re also very worried about our domestic population getting burned with this speculative asset class.”
Gupta concluded his comments by sharing that the bank’s exchange has seen a doubling of transactions this year from April to June. Even more impressive, bitcoin transactions have quadrupled in the same time period.
In July, the Monetary Authority of Singapore alluded to an upcoming framework for the digital asset industry.