SINGAPORE – As Singapore geared up for the riveting speed of the Formula One weekend in mid-September, crypto-related entities were racing toward opportunity at the Token2049 conference. One seasoned traditional finance player wasn’t in much of a rush, though.
Singapore-based DBS Bank, a regional banking behemoth headquartered in the same venue as the conference, Marina Bay Sands, holds all three licenses required to let clients buy traditional securities using stablecoins. But it isn’t doing so yet, even as competitors move ahead.
The only other entity that holds all three licenses in Singapore, MetaComp, told CoinDesk at Token2049 that it was the first to let their clients pay for securities with their crypto holdings – albeit by first converting the stablecoin to fiat.
Moments later, CoinDesk asked Evy Theunis, head of digital assets at DBS’ institutional banking group, why the company hadn’t entered this crypto triathlon, despite appearing fit to do so. Currently, DBS provides digital asset custody, a digital exchange for listing and trading, security tokens and the ability to manage traditional assets alongside a crypto portfolio using the same app.
“I like your triathlon analogy,” said Theunis. “But I’d say while it’s still winter, we have been swimming. Maybe it’s fair to suggest we’re not going as deep as some of the very focused players,, but we’re still doing a lot, getting our hands dirty for the long run.”
The technical reason for not offering the stablecoin service, Theunis explained, related to how DBS tracks any tokens it processes. For non-stablecoin cryptocurrencies, DBS traces every wallet a token has ever touched before it enters the token into its system.
“Can you imagine doing that for stablecoins? That was a technical difficulty because stablecoins are multichain, they cross bridges, etc.,” Theunis said, adding this is why, for some time now, DBS has only offered bitcoin (BTC), ether (ETH), XRP, bitcoin cash (BCH), DOT and ADA trading, because “we want everything that comes into the bank to be foolproof.”
In sporting terminology, DBS, a major player in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia and South Korea, is arguably the Eliot Kipchoge of finance in the region. If digital assets were a triathlon, it may not be the reigning champion,…
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