Singaporean banking giant DBS reports crypto-trading spike; Bitstamp sees 'massive crypto interest'

Huge Singaporean bank DBS has revealed its digital exchange customers have been buying the Bitcoin and Ethereum dip.

Earlier this week, the largest bank in Southeast Asia by assets announced that, amid market volatility, it’s benefitted from investors’ “flight to safety” into the DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx) ecosystem.

Hang on… “flight to safety”? Really?

“Investors who believe in the long-term prospects of digital assets are gravitating towards trusted and regulated platforms to access the digital asset market,” the bank continued.

Ah, okay, then, it’s talking about that kind of safety, and not crypto as some sort of safe haven as a whole. Which it clearly isn’t. We get it now.

“What we are seeing in the digital asset industry is a great reset as the investment narrative shifts decisively away from the chase for yield,” added Lionel Lim, chief executive of DDEx. “Investors today are instead seeking out safe harbors to trade and store their digital assets amid the ongoing market volatility.”

DBS reports 4X growth in Bitcoin buys

To illustrate Lim’s point, the bank’s announcement also revealed that, compared with April 2022, the amount of Bitcoin purchased on DDEx in June saw a fourfold increase, while the quantity of ETH grew 65%.

And Bitcoin custodied by the DDEx exchange grew by 30% from April 30 to June 30 of this year, while its level of Ethereum under custody grew by 3% in the same period.

And that was right in the middle of Terra LUNA’s imploding whirlwind of negativity, too.

What’s more, the total number of trades executed on DDEx in June was more than double that of April, said DBS, adding that: “Buys accounted for over 90% of trades on DDEx in June 2022.”

The member-only exchange is reportedly on track to roll out self-directed trading for its accredited investors in the coming months.

‘Massive institutional interest’: Bitstamp CEO

Meanwhile, Jean-Baptiste Graftieaux, CEO of Luxembourg-based crypto exchange Bitstamp is also seeing bullish activity, particularly on the institutional side of crypto investing.

Speaking with Business2community this week, the CEO with the difficult-to-pronounce surname said:

“We see a strong trend on the institutional side. Many institutional companies are looking to make their first move into crypto – there is massive crypto interest from our institutional clients.”

He also touched on the subject of crypto regulations, signalling the exchange’s intention to “increase its regulatory footprint” in the remainder of 2022, in order to capitalise on the next bull run, whenever that arrives.

“Most regions and countries are looking into regulating crypto,” added Graftieaux. “The key risk here is around ensuring regulations are smart and they foster a level playing field.”

And that’s a similar sentiment to some of Australia’s prominent crypto-industry participants, who’ve been saying almost exactly those words for a while now.