DBS to launch digital exchange for institutional investors

DBS Group Holdings, Southeast Asia's biggest bank, is to set up an exchange for digital assets, including cryptocurrencies, that will provide tokenisation, trading and custody services to institutional and accredited investors.

The DBS Digital Exchange will use blockchain technology to provide a platform for fundraising through asset tokenisation and secondary trading of digital assets, the bank said in a statement on Thursday.

The tokenisation process represents converting rights to a securities asset into a unique digital form, which then becomes eligible for trading. The bank said Singapore Exchange will take a 10% stake in the digital exchange. The move comes as institutional investors pumped $429 million into cryptocurrency funds and products for the week ended Dec. 7, the second highest on record, based on Monday's data from digital asset manager CoinShares. The investments pushed the sector's assets under management to an all-time peak of $15 billion, the Coinshares report said.