DBS Group Holdings Ltd. is going to set up a digital exchange for cryptocurrencies for businesses and wealthy clients, while allowing fund raising via asset tokenization on a wedge run by probably the largest bank account in Southeast Asia.

The planned setup is in partnership with Singapore Exchange Ltd., which will hold 10 % in the new bourse, the Singapore-based lender said Thursday at an exchange filing. The new services include advantage tokenization, secondary trading of digital assets including Bitcoin, and custody services, DBS believed.

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The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the central bank, gave an in-principle approval to the new bourse to exchange assets coming from shares, bonds and private-equity funds, the savings account said. Such regulatory blessing makes it possible for DBS to be among a handful of significant banks to dabble within the crypto industry. While crypto is gaining institutional acceptance, the asset category still sees periodic cyber hacks and is still seen by lots of as affiliated with illicit fund flows.

The occasion has come, the point in time is actually right for this industry to increasingly find partnership and sponsorship from the traditional banking area, DBS Chief Executive Officer Piyush Gupta told a press briefing adhering to the announcement. Trading is going to start as early as week which is next, he said.

The bank has robust governance and controls to monitor as well as stop financial crime, he stated.

Soaring Prices
Digital currencies have gained popularity this season as rates soar. Central banks coming from China to Europe to the U.S. are studying whether to develop the own versions of theirs of digital currencies. Bitcoin is actually up aproximatelly 150 % as well as Ether has much more than tripled after the start of the season. Meantime, institutions and investors are rapidly jumping into the area.

DBS’s move into the crypto space is significant because we are currently seeing the complete blurring of lines between traditional financial services provider and the digital currency/ securities blockchain planet, which has been previously seen to be a different universe, mentioned lawyer Nizam Ismail, that runs Singapore based Ethikom, a consultancy firm for compliance.

Standard Chartered Plc., that has sizable presence in Singapore, previous this particular week agreed to get started on a cryptocurrency custodian for institutional investor deeply in partnership with Northern Trust Corp. Julius Baer Group Ltd., the Zurich-based private bank, is partnering with startup SEBA Crypto AG to offer the wealthy clients of its with digital asset methods as well as plans to lengthen the bank’s service to storage, transaction and investments in such assets.

The DBS Digital Exchange will be for certified individuals and institutional investors, which includes clientele of its DBS Vickers securities device and the private bank of its. It will offer exchange services between Singapore, U.S. as well as Hong Kong dollars, and also the yen, along with Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin cash as well as XRP