- Nansen reports DBS holds over $650M in Ether (ETH).
- DBS denies having Ether, sparking community debate.
DBS, the biggest bank in Singapore, is coming under fire after blockchain analytics company Nansen disclosed it is a whale in Ethereum (ETH). Nansen claims DBS has 173,753 ETH, or more over $650 million worth of Ether.
The bank has refuted these allegations in spite of the supporting data, which has generated discussions in the cryptocurrency community.
We've identified this $650m $ETH Whale holding 173.7k ETH as DBS, the largest bank in Singapore with assets totaling S$739 billion as of 31Â Dec'23
This address has made over $200m by holding ETH… 🤯
Track the address on Nansen here: 0x9e927c02c9eadae63f5efb0dd818943c7262fb8e pic.twitter.com/2rkM3cZ6gJ
— Nansen 🧠(@nansen_ai) May 30, 2024
Analysis on Chain and Bank RefusalÂ
The Ethereum is kept at the cryptocurrency wallet address 0x9e927…62fb8e, which Nansen discovered had apparently made over $200 million on its Ether holdings.
There is now a contentious debate about the veracity of these claims after a DBS spokesman denied that the bank has such assets on file.
The leading blockchain network for dApps, Ethereum, is still a valuable asset in the cryptocurrency market. Investment banks such as DBS are investigating Ethereum to tokenize capital markets, even as other businesses make Bitcoin their main reserve asset.
CoinGecko data show that the price of ETH is now trading at $3,761.12, down 0.52% in the last 24 hours and 0.95% over the previous week, indicating a bearish trend.
Cryptocurrency Involvement of DBSÂ
DBS is hardly a recent arrival in the cryptocurrency space. With $739 billion in assets, the bank introduced a platform for security token sales in 2020, along with a cryptocurrency trading and custody solution.
DBS stressed at the time that all digital assets are maintained at DBS Bank, which is well-known worldwide for its custodial services, and that its exchange will not directly retain cryptocurrencies.
Citing DBS’s online market for authorized investors, a commenter on X speculated that the Ethereum in the purported DBS wallet may be the property of investors rather than the bank.
Also, according to Nansen analyst Edward Wilson, DBS is the owner of the wallet key, just as cryptocurrency exchanges like Binance or Coinbase hold funds on behalf of their consumers. Wilson clarified that DBS oversees these funds’ security as a custodian.
On the other hand, ETHNews last year covered the Proof-of-Reserves Chainlink, which improves security and openness for companies including Circle, KPMG, DBS, and Harneys.