Singapore’s largest banks are expanding their blockchain strategy by providing tokenized, structured notes on Ethereum’s public blockchain.
DBS said in its release on Thursday that it will distribute the equipment through local Singapore exchange Addx, Digift and Hydrax, providing first-time tokenized products to certified institutional investors outside its own client base.
The debut product is a crypto-related participation memo that is paid in cash when the price of a digital asset rises.
Structured notes have traditionally been responsible for investments of at least $100,000, and are often customized, and they are not easy.
By symbolizing each device as a $1,000 unit, DBS said securities will be substitutable, easier to trade, and more flexible in portfolio management.
The demand for such products has been strong as investors are trying to incorporate sophisticated investment strategies into their digital asset portfolios, the bank said in its release.
In the first half of 2025, DBS clients ran more than $1 billion in transactions that include these equipment, with trade volumes increasing by almost 60% from the first quarter of 2025 to the second quarter of 2025.
The bank considers this to be particularly useful for rapidly growing family offices and professional investors in Singapore. The number of city-state single-family offices exceeded 2,000 in 2024, up 43% from the previous year.
This move is because Singapore is deepening its role as a tokenized finance hub. Singapore’s Monetary Authority (MAS) is driving industry pilots through the Project Guardian, developing cross-border infrastructure like Global Layer 1 to pool global liquidity while investigating the tokenization of assets across bonds, Forex and funds.
DBS is one of the most active banks participating in these initiatives, and often uses blockchains allowed by pilots before expanding into public chains.
The initial focus is on crypto chain notes, but DBS said it will tokenize more traditional equity and credit link notes.
“Asset tokenization is the next frontier in financial market infrastructure,” said Li Zhen, head of Forex and Digital Assets at DBS.
“Our first tokenized products address the growing institutionalisation on digital assets. This initiative allows investors to tap into the digital asset ecosystem to build exposure to asset classes,” Zen continued.
