DBS—the top lender in Singapore—teased a cryptocurrency exchange, but promptly deleted the announcement from its website.
According to an Oct. 27 story by Finance Magnates, a DBS webpage announcing plans to launch its own cryptocurrency exchange for both institutional and retail customers was deleted minutes after it went live.
The launch date for those services or the cryptocurrency exchange itself was not included in the announcement. The page—which is not available anymore—read:
“Digital assets are poised to be the future of tomorrow’s digital economy. […] With DBS Digital Exchange, a bank-backed digital exchange, companies and investors can now leverage an integrated ecosystem of solutions to tap the vast potential of private markets and digital currencies.”
The cryptocurrency exchange reportedly plans to allow its users to trade Bitcoin (BTC), Ether (ETH), Ripple (XRP) and Bitcoin Cash (BCH) against multiple fiat currencies. The fiat currencies supported by the platform are the Singapore dollar, United States dollar, Hong Kong dollar and Japanese yen.
The section of the webpage dedicated to frequently asked questions claimed that its services would be available directly to the institutional investors, including financial institutions and professional market makers. Access to the platform for retail investors, on the other hand, would be limited to indirect trading through partners such as the DBS Vickers Securities and DBS Private Bank.
A DBS spokesperson told Coindesk that the service would not go live until regulatory approvals were in place.
DBS also announced the intention to offer crypto custody and security token offering management services. The announcement read:
“Through DBS Digital Exchange, SMEs and large corporates alike can also tap on a Security Token platform to raise capital efficiently through the digitization of their securities and assets, enabling issuers to reach a wider base of investors that might not traditionally have access to such tokens.”
This last detail is particularly interesting, as a traditional financial institution which custodies crypto assets may add significant credibility to the cryptocurrency space. Still, as the digital asset industry matures, such instances are expected to become increasingly frequent.
As Modern Consensus reported in July, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Acting Comptroller of the Currency clearly stated that U.S. banks and federal savings associations are allowed to legally provide custody services for cryptocurrencies.
