DBS reported an 80% year-on-year growth in the number of Bitcoin (BTC) traded on the DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) in 2022, and “a doubling in the number of BTC custodised with the bank’s digital asset custody solution.”
The firm claims these business metrics “underscore the trust that investors continue to place in DBS’ digital asset ecosystem in the face of unprecedented volatility in digital asset markets.”
Investors who believe in the long-term prospects of digital assets are reportedly “gravitating towards trusted and regulated platforms to access the market,” and DBS has been a beneficiary of this “flight of safety.”
In FY2022, the number of BTC traded on DDEx was “close to 80% higher year-on-year, while the number of Ether (ETH) traded on DDEx was nearly 65% higher.”
Customers continued “to park more digital assets with the bank’s institutional-grade digital custody solution.”
The number of BTC custodised with DBS “as of 31 December 2022 more than doubled from 2021, while the number of ETH custodised grew over 60% in FY2022.”
DBS claims it “adopts the industry best practice of holding all custodised digital assets separately within the bank itself using institutional-grade cold wallets. DDEx does not hold any custodised assets.”
DBS also “conducts coin purity checks on all digital assets entering its custody, and the bank fully complies with all prevailing Anti-Money Laundering (AML) / Know Your Customer (KYC) standards.”
DDEx doubled its customer base “in 2022 with close to 1,200 participants registered on the exchange as of 31 December 2022.”
Lionel Lim, CEO of the DBS Digital Exchange, said:
“Since inception in 2020, we have taken a prudent and measured approach towards developing our digital asset ecosystem, choosing to keep pace with the market as it matures and as investors become more sophisticated. We believe that the market has decisively shifted its focus towards trust and stability especially in the wake of multiple scandals that have rocked the industry. As a regulated digital exchange backed by the DBS Group, we offer many unique advantages that investors have come to appreciate as they seek reliable gateways to access the digital asset economy.”
DDEx continues to be “a members-only exchange serving corporate and institutional investors, accredited investors and family offices, who are generally better able to manage the market risks.”
Consequently, DBS did “not observe any major selloffs in 2022, with DDEx observing a nett buy position for its customers throughout the second half of the year.”
Commenting on opportunities in the Security Token Offering (STO) space, Lim said:
“In 2022, we saw growing interest from our corporate clients and were actively working towards converting a number of enquiries into STOs. However, these were put on hold given the market volatility as well as macroeconomic uncertainty. We will continue to work with these potential issuers as well as explore origination opportunities for high quality STO listings in 2023.”
Despite the market uncertainty, DBS achieved “a number of significant milestones” for its digital asset ecosystem in 2022:
In September, self-directed cryptocurrency trading was “rolled out via DBS digibank, providing accredited investors who bank with DBS seamless access to DDEx’s trading solutions.”
Today, over 90% of trades “by the bank’s wealth clients are executed digitally.”
In October, DDEx availed cryptocurrency trading “for Polkadot (DOT) and Cardano (ADA), bringing the total number of cryptocurrencies available for spot trading to six – in addition to BTC, ETH, Bitcoin Cash (BCH) and XRP.”