DBS, Singapore’s largest bank, is stepping up its use of blockchain by bringing structured notes onto the Ethereum public blockchain. The bank announced today that it will tokenize structured notes on the blockchain and make them available to eligible investors on third-party digital investment platforms and digital exchanges.
For this, DBS has partnered with three local digital exchanges, including ADDX, DigiFT, and HydraX. These investment products were only available to DBS’s private clients. However, for the first time the bank is opening them up to accredited and institutional investors.
The first product is a crypto-linked note that pays out in cash when cryptocurrency prices go up, while also reducing losses if prices fall. However, DBS plans to also tokenize equity and credit-linked notes.
According to Li Zhen, Head of Foreign Exchange and Digital Assets at DBS, asset tokenization is the next big step for financial markets. He added, “Our first tokenised product, a crypto-linked note, also addresses the growing institutional appetite for digital assets. With this initiative, a broader segment of investors can now tap our digital asset ecosystem to build exposure to the asset class.”
Lower Barriers, Growing Demand
Structured notes usually need a high minimum investment of $100,000 and are customized for each investor, making them hard to trade. DBS made the notes easier to buy, sell, and manage in portfolios by breaking them into $1,000 units through tokenization.
The bank said demand has been strong. DBS clients traded over $1 billion of these instruments in early 2025, with volumes rising nearly 60% from the first to the second quarter.
Singapore’s Growing Role in Digital Assets
This is particularly significant for family offices and professional investors, who are expanding rapidly in Singapore. The count of single-family offices in the country reached more than 2,000 in 2024, marking a 43% increase from the year before.
Over the past few years, Singapore has been at the leading edge of financial innovation due to tokenization. Singapore’s central bank, MAS, is leading innovation in new digital asset models through initiatives such as Project Guardian, which aims to link markets and provide new sources of liquidity.
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