DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), one of Asia’s first bank-backed digital exchanges, recorded over SG$1.1 billion (US$818 million) in trading value in FY2021, the company said in a press release on Tuesday.
Fast facts
- DDEx is currently a members-only exchange that provides corporate and institutional investors, accredited investors, and family offices that bank with DBS, access to cryptocurrency and digital payment tokens.
- Momentum picked up since DDEx launched in August last year, with Q4 trading values nearing SG$800 million (US$594 million) or five times higher than that of the previous quarter.
- DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, plans to introduce retail digital assets trading by the end of 2022, the bank’s CEO Piyush Gupta said on an earnings call.
- DDEx’s growth and retail expansion may signal demand within the local market, but the country’s central bank last month issued guidelines to restrict crypto businesses from marketing services to the general public.
- “In the coming year we will be scaling our business to serve a larger pool of customers, leveraging DBS’ digital asset ecosystem and investor base. We also aim to list more digital payment tokens and STOs (security token offerings) for trading,” said Lionel Lim, CEO of DBS Digital Exchange.