DBS positions digital exchange as safe gateway in $4t asset market

ETFs have become a vehicle for institutions to access bitcoins without the complexity.

Digital assets’ positions in the financial industry are now much clearer thanks to regulatory developments globally, with banks like DBS positioning themselves as secure exchanges for investors to safely access the ecosystem.

The USA’ passage of the Genius Act helped bring legitimacy into the digital asset industry, said David Hui, Chief Commercial Officer, DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx). Laws on digital assets passed in Singapore, Hong Kong, and the Middle East and North Asia (MENA) region also contributed to the “improved” regulatory landscape.

“Governments are realizing that they cannot leave this entirely to the free markets without any sense of regulations and any jurisdiction oversight,” Hui told attendees of the ABF IA Summit 2025 held at Sofitel Singapore, 25 September 2025.

Central banks are coming in to protect investors seeking to take part in the US$4t digital market landscape, he said.

Southeast Asia’s DBS envisions itself as a safe marketplace for this trillion-dollar digital market whilst having access to banking services.

Customers of DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx), for example, have the ability to convert digital assets to fiat directly. “We also allow trading of these assets against fiat currencies,” he said.

Other services DDEx offers include asset tokenisation and issuance, particularly security token offering. The exchange also plans to issue a tokenised money market fund sometime in November 2025.

Exchange trade funds (ETFs) have become a vehicle for institutions to safely access bitcoins. ETFs are now the biggest holders of underlying bitcoin, with bitcoin ETFs having US$153 in assets under management (AUM), followed by ethereum ETFs with US$25b AUM.

Companies and event governments now hold a significant amount of bitcoin through ETFs, Hui said.

“Essentially, the presence and introduction of crypto digital asset backed ETFs allow institutions to gain access to this asset class without the technical complexity of custody,” Hui observed.

“What we have seen is that ETFs have been effective at drawing institutional flow into this asset class because of the underlying vehicle being a security vehicle. It's familiar to fund managers, asset managers, family offices, and so forth,” he added.

Countries have also started taking significant portions of digital assets. Ukraine had approved a bill to hold bitcoin as part of the national reserve, and Bhutan is reportedly leveraging its hydroelectricity to mine bitcoin.

More broadly, interest in digital assets from institutional clients have to do with its ability to solve real-world payment collection problems.

“The stablecoin use case has historically been represented as a transfer of value, remittance use case, trade finance use case,” Hui said.

DDEx, for their part, has a custody solution enabling institutions to keep their coins.