Singapore’s largest bank expands the blockchain strategy by offering the pokeen arranged notes to the Ethereum Public Blockchain, in a move that expands access to complex financial products reserved for its private clients.
DBS told a press release on Thursday that it distributed instruments through local Singapore exchanges Addx, Digift and Hydrax, which marked the first time offering tokenized products to accredited and institutional investors outside the client’s own base.
The debut product is a note associated with crypto-related participation that pays cash when digital property prices increase, while limiting the downside exposure.
Outlined notes traditionally bring a minimum investment of $ 100,000 and are often customized, making them invalid.
By bringing in each instrument at $ 1,000 units, DBS said security has become fungible and easier to trade, offering more flexibility for portfolio management.
The demand for such instruments became strong as investors seek to include advanced investment techniques in their digital asset portfolio, the bank said on a release.
In the first half of 2025, DBS clients implemented more than $ 1 billion of trading involving these instruments, with trade volumes growing almost 60% from Q1 2025 to Q2 2025.
The bank sees this particularly benefiting for family offices and professional investors, which grows quickly in Singapore. The number of single-family offices in the city-state led 2,000 in 2024, up to 43% year in the year, it said on an release.
The move came as Singapore deepened its role as a hub for tokenized finance. Singapore’s financial authority (But) are promoting industry pilots by Project Guardian.
DBS is one of the most active banks participating in these initiatives, which often uses blockchain permissions for pilots before expanding into public chains.
While the initial focus is on crypto-related notes, DBS says it will also taste more traditional equity- and credit-related notes.
“Asset’s tokenization is the next border of financial market infrastructure,” said Li Zhen, head of foreign exchange and digital ownership of DBS.
“Our first tokenized product responds to the growing appetite in the institutional for digital assets. Through this initiative, a broader segment of investors can now have our digital asset ecosystem to develop exposure to the asset class,” Zhen continued.
