Kategorie: Crypto Business

The bank launched an institutional crypto trading desk in early 2021 after a regulatory nod from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

DBS, a banking and financial services giant headquartered in Singapore, has plans for a crypto trading desk that will target retail investors, the bank’s chief executive officer Piyush Gupta said on Monday.

Gupta revealed the plans during an earnings call following the bank’s fourth-quarter report released on Monday.

According to an excerpt of the call cited by news publication CoinDesk, much more needs to be done before the trading desk rolls out. However, the DBS chief believes the financial services provider will be all systems go by the end of the year.

“We are starting the initial work to expand it beyond the current investor base,” Gupta said.

At the moment, the Singaporean banking giant is looking to expand its current infrastructure to offer the new service to customers beyond its existing base of accredited investors, the CEO added.

Most of the work on the trading desk, Gupta noted, relates to compliance and usability.

Aspects of the desk to do with user-friendliness and integration with crypto-assets should be done in the next several months, with targets for accessibility put around June of 2022.

DBS received a regulatory go-ahead from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) last year to offer crypto trading services and has emerged as one of the major banking institutions around the world looking to lean into crypto to satisfy customer demand.

Plans for a retail crypto trading desk comes after the bank’s successful unveiling of an institutional-based crypto trading desk.

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• Coinbase Prime will power the new separately managed account ONE Digital SMA, the companies announced.
• Brett Tejpaul, the head of Coinbase Institutional, said in a press release that the partnership with One River Digital will help the two firms “meet clients‘ evolving needs.“

One River Digital Asset Management and leading cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase have partnered to launch a new institutional-grade, separately managed account (SMA) for wealth managers and other institutional investors, according to a press release published Friday.

ONE Digital SMA will be powered by Coinbase Prime will offer a suite of digital asset investment strategies and services, which wealth managers can easily and directly access, the two firms said in a statement.

The platform also offers “an early look at the future of asset management in a financial system transitioning to blockchain-enabled infrastructure,” they added.

ONE Digital SMA, according to Coinbase, is for wealth managers intent on giving their clients direct exposure to crypto investing. The account will offer complete transparency and comes with other features such as staking.

Brett Tejpaul, Head of Coinbase Institutional, noted that the launch of the SMA has come at a time digital asset owners were increasingly moving away from research to digital implementation. In 2022, he added, customers were more inclined towards holding their digital assets in segregated accounts they control.

He also remarked that clients were more after investment management services that offer the same quality as that which they are accustomed to in legacy markets. 

The new offering will be crucial to meeting clients’ evolving needs and demands, the Coinbase executive noted.

“ONE Digital SMA is the best of both worlds – it delivers market-leading access and secure custody via Coinbase Prime and institutional grade investment products and services from One River Digital,” Tejpaul said.

One River Digital Asset Management is a leading asset manager with approximately $2.5 billion in institutional assets. The firm launched its services in 2013.

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• Uber is having conversations about leaning into crypto, the firm’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshashi told Bloomberg on Friday.

• But the company wants to see a less expensive, more environmentally friendly exchange mechanism, the Uber chief added.

The CEO of Uber, a ride-sharing company with a presence in most cities in the world, says the company will at “some point” in the future accept cryptocurrency payments.

Dara Khosrowshashi said this in an interview with Bloomberg on Friday.

He noted that the company continues to have conversations over the idea and that they “definitely” would go the crypto route when the time and conditions are right.

“So we’re absolutely watching it. And if you say, is Uber going to accept crypto in the future? Absolutely. At some point. This isn’t the right point, but we will.“

Explaining what the firm was looking at, the Uber chief pointed to the exchange mechanism. He said the current transaction mechanism is expensive and “not great for the environment.

“As the exchange mechanism becomes less expensive, becomes more environmentally friendly, I think you will see us lean into crypto a little bit more,” he told Bloomberg.

In his remarks, Khosrowshashi looked at Bitcoin as a good store of value.

Uber shares fell 7% on Friday after the company’s financial guidance missed analyst estimates. The firm’s projects adjusted profits for 2024 to come in at $5 billion, below forecast figures of $5.7 billion.

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• The company wants to expand its blockchain team to 100 and is currently hiring personnel in senior positions.

• The NFT-gaming space is seeing increased interest across the globe, with the explosion within the broader NFT ecosystem over 2021 likely to continue this year. 

Mobile gaming giant Zynga is reportedly eyeing a huge entry into the blockchain space and the non-fungible token (NFT) space, according to a new report published on Wednesday.

The online gaming platform is expected to launch an NFT-based game as well as seal some exciting partnerships among other expansion plans, Axios reported.

Zynga is also said to be looking at expanding its blockchain staff, currently at 15, to about 100 by the end of the year.  By this time, the gaming company is expected to launch an NFT-based game targeting whales- most likely a yield-focused offering.

The gaming project will not feature known Zynga brands such as Farmville, sources said.

Zynga’s NFT plans…
– Growing team to 100, mulling acquisitions
– First game this year
– Won’t use big Zynga brands
– Targeting existing NFT gamers who have „investor or whale“ POV
– „don’t want to assume that they want a super deep gameplay experience“https://t.co/qwg2ByBW8p

— Stephen Totilo (@stephentotilo) February 9, 2022

On the expansion move, Matt Wolf, Zynga’s head of blockchain, said the firm is looking to recruit senior staff to fill positions related to the upcoming project.

While the outlook wasn’t very clear at the moment, the company is exploring the space and is confident of jumping into the space, Wolf added in comments quoted by Axios.

The NFT market saw more than $20 billion in sales in the past year and the entry of major gaming providers like Zynga could catalyse more investment in the sector.

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• Robinhood’s crypto section will be key as the trading platform seeks to venture into the global market.

• Regulation is one factor Robinhood wants to get right as it moves to go global “crypto first,” chief brokerage officer Steve Quirk noted.

Robinhood Markets Inc is looking to go global, and the easiest route to achieving that is through crypto, the company’s chief brokerage officer Steve Quirk told CNBC in an interview on Wednesday.

In 2021, Robinhood hit household-name status, with the meme craze theme pushed forward by retail investors driving active user numbers and trading volumes. Stocks of GameStop, AMC Entertainment, Blackberry and Virgin Galactic among others skyrocketed, and the company’s retail user numbers shot up.

But a decline in the fortunes of the meme stocks, as the broader markets faced selling pressure, has meant a reduction in retail trading numbers. And according to Quirk, the meme stocks are no longer among the top traded names on the platform.

Currently, Robinhood Crypto lists seven cryptocurrencies in Bitcoin (BTC), Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Bitcoin SV (BSV), Litecoin (LTC), Ethereum (ETH), Ethereum Classic (ETC) and meme coin Dogecoin (DOGE).

The platform is exploring other crypto assets, which the chief brokerage officer says is being done in a way that fits regulatory requirements. The platform is also looking to add other features such as wallets, he added.

“We also have aspirations to take this brand global and we would do so crypto first,” he told CNBC’s ‘Squawk Box’.

Asked to explain what he met by “crypto first”, given the presence of Coinbase and other major crypto companies, Quirk noted:

“Well, I think the path for us to go global and have the most traction is through crypto, and maybe follow that with other components of the offering.”

He said that going the crypto way is the easiest avenue for the company to achieve its goal, citing regulatory aspects of the market and “other facets” of the market.

The California-based company saw its monthly active users decline over the fourth quarter, down to 17.3 million from 18.9 million in Q3. Monthly active users peaked above 21.3 million in June 2021.

The trading app is currently only available to US customers, having canceled its UK launch in 2020.

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