DBS Bank of Singapore is opening a digital assets exchange next week.
The DBS Digital Exchange, which is 10% owned by Singapore’s SGX stock exchange, will also provide tokenization of securities and other assets, as well as bank-grade custody for digital assets, CoinDesk reports.
The new exchange will facilitate spot exchanges from fiat currencies to cryptocurrencies and vice versa, said Piyush Gupta, DBS Group CEO.
Four fiat currencies (SGD, USD, HKD, JPY) will be tradable against four of the most established cryptocurrencies covering 70%-80% of the market, namely bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash and XRP, Gupta added.
“We are ready to begin crypto trading as early as next week,” said Gupta. “Security token offerings may take a month or two to get started – but in summary we are ready to go.”
The security token offering part of the digital exchange will comprise a regulated platform for the issuance and trading of digital tokens backed by financial assets, such as shares in unlisted companies, bonds and private equity funds.
“You can tokenize anything, you can tokenize a painting. But for now, we will be concentrating on financial assets.” Gupta said.
The DBS exchange will only be open to institutional clients and accredited investors, Gupta said.
“We are excited to apply our strengths in market infrastructure and risk management to this venture,” said Loh Boon Chye, CEO of SGX in a statement. “There are significant opportunities to bring trust and efficiency in price discovery to the global digital assets space. We look forward to working closely with DBS to advance Singapore’s standing as a multi-asset international financial center.”