Blockchain analytical platform Nansen mentioned Singapore’s largest financial institution, DBS, is an Ethereum whale after figuring out a pockets purportedly belonging to the monetary establishment.
In a Could 30 social media submit, Nansen claimed DBS holds roughly 173,753 ETH, valued at $648 million, within the pockets deal with “0x9e927c02c9eadae63f5efb0dd818943c7262fb8e.” It added that the financial institution had revamped $200 million from its ETH holdings.
Edward Wilson, Analyst at Nansen, mentioned:
“Nansen is 100% sure this belongs to DBS – DBS owns the private key of this wallet and these assets are most likely a part of their custody solution.
This is similar to how we see institutions, both crypto-native like exchanges such as Binance or Coinbase custody funds on behalf of their users and non crypto native custody funds. The institution is the custodian and responsible for managing the security of the funds.”
Nonetheless, A DBS Financial institution spokesperson informed CryptoSlate:
“In relation to the post, DBS does not have this position on our books.”
Prime 50
Etherscan information exhibits that the substantial ETH bag would place the monetary establishment among the many prime 40 holders of the second-largest digital asset by market capitalization.
This locations it straight behind wallets belonging to centralized exchanges like Crypto.com and Bybit’s Scorching Pockets 1. Notably, DBS is the one conventional monetary establishment on this checklist, in any other case dominated by main exchanges and crypto platforms resembling Binance, Robinhood, Arbitrum: Bridge, and Kraken.
In line with its Wikipedia web page, DBS is the biggest financial institution in Southeast Asia by property and among the many largest banks in Asia, with property totaling S$739 billion as of December 2023. The financial institution’s most vital and controlling shareholder is Singapore’s Sovereign Wealth Fund, Temasek.
Clients’ property?
Crypto group members mentioned DBS’s ETH possession was additional proof that institutional buyers are more and more all for crypto as a authentic asset class.
Nonetheless, some have speculated that the ETH might belong to the financial institution prospects. In 2020, the financial institution launched a crypto buying and selling and digital asset custody platform for safety token choices. In line with its web site:
“DBS Digital Exchange offers trading services between four fiat currencies (SGD, USD, HKD, JPY), and six of the more established cryptocurrencies, namely Bitcoin, Ethereum, Bitcoin Cash, Polkadot, Cardano and XRP.”
In a latest report, DBS famous elevated curiosity within the crypto market from retail buyers, large-volume merchants, and hedge funds.
Could 30 Replace: The story was up to date to incorporate an announcement from DBS.