MAS – Monetary Authority of Singapore

Upbit joins 15 other crypto firms permitted to provide digital payment token services in Singapore.

SBF is found guilty of fraud, Hong Kong hosts Fintech Week, Neo advances Web3, Backpack launches NFT exchange, and more.

The MAS said that its previous tokenization pilots demonstrated great potential benefits of the technology.

Singapore’s major payment institution license will enable Upbit to continue offering regulated digital asset services while awaiting its full license.

The largest U.S.-based cryptocurrency exchange will be launching more products and services in the Lion City, Coinbase’s Hassan Ahmed says.

Welcome to Forkast IQ, presented by Forkast’s Megha Chaddah, where we look beyond the headlines to get you insights that power smarter decisions.

The Asia-Pacific branch of Ripple Labs has received a Major Payments Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

The Major Payment Institution license from Singapore’s central bank allows the exchange to expand its digital payment token services in the Lion City.

Now a top-ranked crypto hub, Singapore is a shiny example of the central role that government can play in nurturing industry growth while bolstering consumer protections.

As the 2023 G20 Summit is set to kickoff over the weekend, we take a closer look at India’s role in kicking off its crypto regulation agenda.

Top blockchain and crypto news: Coinbase steps up to fill void of crypto lenders. NFTs extend losses. What’s next for crypto as Singapore gets a new president?

Welcome to Forkast IQ, presented by Angie Lau, where we look beyond the headlines to get you insights that power smarter decisions. Coming up on today’s show:

Top blockchain and crypto news: Singapore steps up stablecoin rules. DeGods decline. Hong Kong’s third crypto license.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore unveiled a stablecoin regulatory framework on Tuesday as the city-state aims to become a global hub for the crypto industry.

Recently proposed by Singapore in collaboration with fintech heavy hitters, PBM can be a powerful tool for promoting accountability and efficiency, writes Anndy Lian. But it’s not without risks.

Welcome to Forkast IQ, presented by Angie Lau, where we look beyond the headlines to get you insights that power smarter decisions. Coming up on today’s show:

Southeast Asia steps up regulation. No end in sight for NFT market decline. Voyager’s shrinking portfolio.

Cryptocurrency service providers in Singapore will have to keep customer assets under a statutory trust before the end of the year, for safekeeping purposes, the city state’s central bank announced Monday.

Ripple Labs’ Asia-Pacific branch is offering digital payment services in Singapore after receiving in-principle approval of its license application from the MAS on June 22. What does that mean for the company’s Asia business?

Top blockchain and crypto news: Fidelity Investment is reportedly close to filing its own Bitcoin ETF. NFT traders seek liquidity. Singapore eyes asset tokenization.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city state’s central bank, has proposed a framework for designing open, interoperable networks for digital assets, developed jointly with the Bank for International Settlements and other financial institutions. 

The Asia-Pacific arm of San Francisco-based technology firm Ripple Labs saidThursday it received in-principle approval to start offering digital payment services in Singapore.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released on Wednesday a whitepaper for “purpose bound” money, detailing a technical overview of digital currencies designed for specific purposes.

Independent Reserve may have a new Hong Kong office in the “next few months,” the Singapore chief of the Australian crypto exchange said in an exclusive interview. Focusing on institutional clientele, the exchange aims to double trade volumes and expand its user base this year.

Circle Singapore said Wednesday it has received a Major Payment Institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore.

JPMorgan has reportedly launched a pilot project with top private lenders in India for interbank dollar transaction settlements through its blockchain platform, Onyx. 

Temasek, Singapore’s state-owned investment firm, said on Monday that it has cut the pay of senior management and the investment team involved in the decision to invest in the now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is reportedly working on guidelines to help local banks vet and provide banking services to cryptocurrency clients

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) aims to publish cryptocurrency and stablecoin consultations feedback by the middle of this year, it said Monday.

DBS bank’s digital exchange, which serves institutional clients, said macroeconomic conditions last year were not suitable for security token offerings (STO), but it will explore opportunities for such listings in 2023 and plans to add more crypto tokens.

Innovation and regulation are mutually exclusive in the world of crypto – and in the aftermath of the FTX collapse, getting the balance right is key.

Singapore-based crypto exchange MetaComp has been granted Singapore’s license, enabling it to offer digital asset exchange and custody services to institutional investors.

Asset tokenization and DeFi hold tremendous potential for the finance sector, writes Han Kwee Juan of DBS Bank. Here’s how the Singaporean government is at the forefront of change.

Singapore-based DBS bank, the largest lender in Southeast Asia, has said it is the first bank in Asia to complete an intraday repurchase transaction on a blockchain-based network. 

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said on Monday that it was not possible for the central bank to protect local users from FTX’s collapse as the crypto exchange operated offshore and was not licensed by MAS.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has partnered The New York Innovation Center of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to study if wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs) can make cross-border payments more efficient.

HashKey Capital Singapore, an investment arm of Hong Kong-based HashKey Group, said on Friday that it received an in-principle approval for the Capital Markets Services license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).

Hong Kong and Singapore are now locked in a battle over the future of crypto in Asia – but who will emerge victorious?

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) wants to build the city-state into a “crypto hub” fueled by instant settlements, tokenized assets and programmable money, not “speculating in cryptocurrencies,” Ravi Menon, the central bank’s managing director, said at the Singapore FinTech Festival on Thursday. 

The MAS launched Project Ubin+ on Thursday, a collaborative initiative with international partners to explore cross-border foreign exchange settlements using wholesale CBDC.

The Bank for International Settlements (BIS) has launched a new project with the central banks of Singapore, France and Switzerland to study the possibility of integrating some decentralized finance (DeFi) features with central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). See related article: mBridge participants to end domestic payments of foreign CBDCs Fast facts The BIS announced on […]

Singapore-based StraitsX, a payments infrastructure for digital assets, will pilot stablecoin applications at the ongoing Singapore Fintech Festival. 

DBS, the largest bank in Southeast Asia, said it tested trading of foreign exchange and government bonds using permissioned decentralized finance (DeFi) liquidity pools on a public blockchain as part of the city-state’s Project Guardian exploration of blockchain in finance.

The bank is in the center of developments shepherded by the Monetary Authority of Singapore to explore digital financial technologies emerging around blockchain.

The issuer of the world’s second-largest stablecoin is joining a fleet of companies in the digital asset industry moving into Singapore. What’s the attraction?

Cryptocurrency exchanges in Singapore are shifting focus to heavy-hitter investors, such as family offices and financial institutions, in line with the central bank’s warnings about the risks in retail crypto trading.

DBS Bank, the largest lender in Southeast Asia, has partnered the Singapore government’s Open Government Products (OGP) to pilot purpose-bound money-based vouchers (PBM) using tokenized Singapore dollars to facilitate live transactions with selected merchants. 

The central bank is also considering options such as banning crypto firms from offering credit facilities, leverage or staking services to retail traders.

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Securities and Exchange Commission of the U.S. are investigating whether bankrupt crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) misled investors about its balance sheet and failed to register with the two agencies, according to a Bloomberg report which cites two people familiar with the matter. See related article: […]

Cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a license to offer “digital payment token” services in the city-state.  See related article: Singapore’s MAS says needs to do better job explaining crypto policy Fast facts Blockchain.com is the second crypto exchange to earn the central bank’s in-principle approval […]

Singapore-based Coinhako cryptocurrency exchange, one of a handful to have a full license to operate in the city-state, has launched “Coinhako Treasures” to offer more products that suit the needs of institutional clients, like corporates and family offices, as it seeks to grow its institutional user base.   See related article: How a market slump may […]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore is exploring blockchain-based payments solution to solve the challenges in cross-border transactions.  See related article: Singapore warms up to crypto industry — on its own terms Fast facts The current state of cross-border payments “is slow, costly, opaque, and inefficient, relying on an archaic network of correspondent banks,” Ravi Menon, […]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said illegal crypto-related businesses are operating in the city state and it is working with the police to identify and prosecute them. See related article: Singapore’s MAS says needs to do better job explaining crypto policy Fast facts In a reply to a Parliamentary question, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, senior minister […]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is preparing for the future of finance by exploring distributed ledger technology use cases, such as asset tokenization and cross-border payments, the city-state’s Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong said on Thursday at an event organized by the central bank.  See related article:  Filecoin service provider RRMine leaves China for […]

SBI Digital Markets Pte. Ltd. (SBI DM) has received a Capital Markets Services (CMS) license from Singapore’s central bank, which allows it to provide custodial services and offer capital markets products. See related article: Singapore’s MAS says needs to do better job explaining crypto policy Fast facts SBI DM plans to launch a digital asset […]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it is unable to determine the proportion of cryptocurrency holdings by the general public in the city-state as these include transactions with both Singapore-based as well as overseas service providers.   See related article: Singapore’s MAS says needs to do better job explaining crypto policy Fast facts “Data on […]

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS, aims to expand its cryptocurrency and digital assets offerings to 300,000 new clients in the face of the crypto bear market, according to a Financial Times report on Tuesday.  See related article: Why DBS’ move into the digital asset space is more than a token gesture Fast facts In an interview, […]

Excluding a few dozen tokens, most cryptocurrencies are bound to “go away,” according to Umar Farooq, Chief Executive Officer of JPMorgan’s blockchain unit. See related article: Singapore’s MAS says needs to do better job explaining crypto policy Fast facts “Most of crypto is still junk,” he said at the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s Green Shoots […]

Welcome to The Daily Forkast – August 29, 2022 – presented by Joel Flynn. Coming up on today’s show: Crypto clarity from Singapore’s central bank. Forkast and NEAR Foundation initiative champions women in Web3. We’ll have more on those stories — and other news shaping the cryptocurrency and blockchain world — in this episode of […]

The city-state hosted a seminar with a title that it hopes sums up its crypto approach: “Yes to digital asset innovation, No to cryptocurrency speculation.”

Huobi in hot water after being put on investor alert list. Meanwhile, we take a closer look into crypto regulation in Asia.

Cross currents: BlackRock Inc, the world’s biggest money manager, is talking about Bitcoin opportunities amid a market slump. Singapore’s Coinhako looks to have similar ideas.

Digital Treasures Center (DTC) became the latest firm to receive the Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to become a regulated Digital Payment Token (DPT) services provider, the company announced on Monday.  See related article: Singapore’s central bank says cryptocurrencies have ‘no fundamental value’ Fast facts A full license […]

New Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Governor Felipe Medalla is no fan of crypto, but in an exclusive interview with Forkast, he said there’s no plan to outlaw the digital asset.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it will seek consultation in the next months on proposed measures toward regulating the crypto industry. See related article: Singapore’s central bank says cryptocurrencies have ‘no fundamental value’ Fast facts Singapore’s regulatory focus on crypto has been mainly toward containing money laundering and terrorist financing risks, MAS Managing […]

Singapore’s monetary authority mulls on crypto limits. Meanwhile, Manny Pacquiao drops his NFT collection despite the crypto winter.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is mulling additional consumer protection safeguards on crypto, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, the minister in charge of the central bank, told Parliament.  See related article: Singapore’s central bank says cryptocurrencies have ‘no fundamental value’ Fast facts MAS is considering introducing rules on the use of leverage and limits on retail participation […]

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has “reprimanded” cryptocurrency hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) for misleading information and ignoring assets under management (AUM) limits, the central bank said in a statement on Thursday.  See related article: Three Arrows Capital lines up for liquidation Fast facts In August 2013, 3AC obtained its registered fund management […]

CoinFLEX to solve its liquidity problems by issuing a recovery token. Meanwhile, Singapore’s central bank doubts crypto capabilities.

Whither Singapore in the cryptocurrency world? The Monetary Authority of Singapore has some views on that and as with most markets, there are winners and losers.

CoinFLEX joins other exchanges in freezing withdrawals. Meanwhile, crypto investors in Singapore head for the exits.

One door closes and another opens, which seems to be what’s happening in Singapore as the crypto price slump restructures the trading environment.