The largest bank in Singapore is backing cryptocurrency and blockchain tech despite the regulatory uncertainty and market downturn.
According to a new report from the Financial Times, DBS CEO Piyush Gupta says the recent crypto slump shows the need for regulated financial institutions to offer digital asset products.
DBS first rolled out its crypto exchange for institutional and accredited investors in late 2020, offering trading services for Bitcoin (BTC), Ethereum (ETH), XRP and Bitcoin Cash (BCH). Earlier this year, Gupta announced plans to further expand its crypto offerings.
Now, Gupta says financially regulated institutions can help crypto reach the mainstream public.
“You might as well try and create frameworks and processes to make these sensibly available to everybody instead of having a regulated space and a cowboy space and let everybody go to the cowboy space.”
Nizam Ismail, the founder of digital space consulting group Ethikom Consultancy, says the volatility of crypto makes it difficult for most people to fully appreciate the dangers of investment until it’s too late.
“In truth, crypto is highly volatile and fundamentally it has to go down to people understanding the risk…”
Gupta says his customers potentially getting “burned” by a crypto downswing is a chief concern.
“On the one hand, we want to be a global crypto hub. On the other hand, we’re also very worried about our domestic population getting burned with this speculative asset class.”
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