• DBS Bank is seeking regulatory approval from Hong Kong authorities to offer crypto services to its customers.
• The bank recorded a four-fold surge in demand for its bitcoin (BTC) trading service last year.
• Other traditional financial institutions such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, and BNY Mellon have also entered the Web3 ecosystem.

DBS Bank Seeks Regulatory Approval for Crypto Services

DBS Bank has revealed that it is pursuing regulatory approval from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) to provide crypto services to customers in Hong Kong. This comes after the bank recorded a massive four-fold surge in demand for its bitcoin (BTC) trading service last year.

Surge in Demand for BTC Trading

The Singapore based lender’s brokerage arm DBS Vickers was granted a license by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) in 2021 to offer crypto asset services within Singapore. Despite 2021’s bear market conditions, which have continued into this year, DBS Bank said it witnessed an increase in crypto trading volume on its platform over the past year. As a result, DBS expanded their offering last September to include established altcoins such as ether (ETH), XRP and other altcoins on its DDEX exchange, allowing wealth clients to trade these assets directly from their bank accounts.

Regulatory Developments

The global Web3 ecosystem continues to grapple with regulatory uncertainty; however, cryptocurrency adoption by traditional financial institutions across various jurisdictions keeps increasing. Major lenders such as Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, BNY Mellon and HSBC have all signaled plans to enter the crypto market.

Hong Kong’s Liberal Stance Towards Blockchain-Based Assets

Taking advantage of Hong Kong’s newfound liberal stance towards blockchain-based digital assets, DBS Bank hopes that securing a regulatory license from the HKMA will enable them to provide their Hong Kong customers with direct access to crypto products through their bank accounts.

Conclusion

Although there are still some dark clouds hovering over Web3 industry regulations globally, it is clear that more traditional financial institutions are entering the space and customers are increasingly interested in gaining access digital currency investments through banks like DBS Bank