DBS goes big on Bitcoin and cryptocurrencies… maybe

Over the last few months, there’s been a major shift in the narrative of bitcoin. Up until July, Bitcoin has always been seen as a speculative play. Outside of the previous narrative of bitcoin being used for nefarious purposes and scams, it was also something that only a few math nerds could appreciate. But, starting Q3 of 2020, something strange happened. Institutions started announcing that they have converted some of their treasury reserve into BTC.

This started in August when MicroStrategy announced that out of the $500M cash reserve they have, they are converting $425M of that into Bitcoin. Square followed that up with a $50M play into Bitcoin. A week ago, PayPal announced not only that they will soon enable their 345M users to buy hold and sell cryptocurrencies in their app, but that they are also on the lookout to acquire a crypto native company.

Those were all amazing news. Institutional money was coming into Bitcoin in a meaningful way. And many more will follow.

But, what happened next was much more exciting.

The banks are warming up to Bitcoin

Remember JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon said in 2017 that Bitcoin was a fraud, and that he’d fire any trader in his company who was trading Bitcoin. Well, that same JP Morgan has now done an about turn, and in a recent report, says that there is potential long term upside.

Anyway, let’s get to the story alluded to in the title. Sorry, it took a while! I needed to set the scene and context behind the announcement.

DBS Digital Exchange

DBS Bank, Southeast Asia’s largest bank, 2 days ago, put out an announcement on their site (and then abruptly took it down, but not before eagle eyed folks saw it) about their plans to launch a cryptocurrency exchange with multiple fiat pair support.

With DBS Digital Exchange, you can trade BTC, ETH, BCH and XRP against SGD, USD, HKD and JPY. They will also have a digital asset custody service, as well as a security token offering service when it launches.

In response to queries, a spokesperson said they took it down because they have not gotten the regulatory approval from MAS, and that this is still a work in progress. However, given the huge undertaking, it is highly unlikely that MAS does not know about this, and that this proposal will be a surprise to them.

Moreover, Singapore has been known as a crypto friendly nation, as well as in a tight race with HK to be the financial hub in Asia. All these plus the push to be a smart nation and a digital nation, says to me that once they are ready, approvals will be in place.

This announcement will also no doubt make all other banks sit up and take notice. If they don’t have a crypto plan in place yet, they are already behind.

So, is anyone still thinking bitcoin is a scam or rat poison?