Singapore’s DBS Bank, one of the largest banks in Asia and indeed the very largest in Southeast Asia, plans to launch a trading desk for retail customers for cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin (BTC) and ethereum (ETH) this year. This was announced by the DBS CEO Pyish Gupta on February 14 in a so-called earnings call, shortly after the publication of the [fourth quarter revenue figures](
The bank already launched a crypto trading desk for institutional investors in 2021, called the DBS Digital Exchange. Gupta reports that there is still a lot of work to do, but he expects the new trading desk to be operational by the end of this year.
*”We are starting the initial work to expand it beyond the current investor base. There’s a lot of work to do in terms of eligibility and fraud prevention, but we should have something in place by the end of the year.”*
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In addition, the bank is currently working on its existing trading desk for institutional clients. Gupta reports that in the first half of this year, DBS wants to ensure that the platform is more accessible. Currently, customers can only invest in crypto over the phone, but the plan is to bring this service online so that customers can serve themselves.
Go Asia! This is going to be big!
I imagine many banks are going to launch crypto trading in the next 1-2 years. It’s a very obvious money grab for them and their only chance to survive is to adopt.
Bullish on Singapore