Banking giant is among the largest Ethereum holders in the world, reveals Nansen

DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, has been revealed to be an Ethereum (ETH) “whale” by on-chain analytics firm Nansen.

According to Nansen, a blockchain address purportedly belonging to DBS, 0x9e927c02c9eadae63f5efb0dd818943c7262fb8e, held 173,753 ETH, valued at around $647 million at the time the withdrawal was made. At the time of analysis, Ether was costing $3,730 per unit.

Nansen highlighted that this address generated more than $200 million in profits from its Ethereum holdings. However, a DBS spokesperson stated: “In relation to the post, DBS has no such position on our books.”

Banking giant is Ethereum whale

Ether is the native token of the Ethereum platform, one of the world’s main distributed computing networks, widely used for creating smart contracts and decentralized applications. Ethereum has established itself as an essential technology for investment banks interested in tokenizing capital markets.

DBS is not a newcomer to the cryptocurrency sector and offers a variety of services related to digital assets. Among these services are, for example, custody of digital assets, a trading exchange for security tokens, and a portfolio management application covering both traditional and crypto assets.

Furthermore, a recent DBS report highlighted growing interest in the cryptocurrency market from retail investors, high-frequency traders and hedge funds.

Nansen’s information about DBS’s Ethereum holdings comes as the cryptocurrency market eagerly awaits the debut of spot ETH exchange-traded funds (ETFs) in the US. It is believed that this could further boost institutional adoption of the cryptocurrency.

Since 2020, several listed companies have started to incorporate cryptocurrencies, especially Bitcoin, into their reserves as a form of diversification. In January, Bitcoin ETFs began trading in the US, marking a significant step towards the integration of cryptocurrencies into the traditional financial market.

Amid all this, the price of Ethereum has risen more than 24% in the last two weeks, according to data from CoinGecko. At the time of writing this article, the second largest cryptocurrency on the market is priced at US$3,757.