Singapore has been positioning itself to become one of the crypto hubs globally. Yet with the downward trend and the crisis of liquidity in the crypto market, regulators were seen to harden their stance. Off late Singapore showed a sign of cautious acceptance of the economy of crypto. They passed legislation to strengthen crypto service providers’ controls. The legislation that was passed needed every virtual asset service provider located in the city-state to start operating only after they received a license from the involved authorities. for further information visit bestforexbrokeraustralia.com it helps you learn more about crypto.
All about the new regulation
This new regulation has been included in the Financial Services and Market Act. It strengthened the regulatory body’s authority. The aforementioned regulatory body will only be allowed for providing licenses to cryptocurrency service providers.
Previously Singapore had a lenient approach towards crypto and other digital assets. They aimed towards becoming a Web3 innovation hub. As a result, they had lenient policies that allured start-ups and different companies that worked in the space. Yet it was observed that Singapore has changed its approach towards crypto and other digital assets.
Such a decision by the government of Singapore is never an isolated instance of their caution toward the industry of crypto. Now Singapore has passed a law that will be effectively prohibiting crypto businesses to advertise to the general people and illustrate the cautious stance of the country.
Views of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)
MAS’s chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty mentioned that they have no tolerance for bad market behavior. If someone did anything bad, they will be brutal or hard unrelentingly. His comments present a little different view than the one shared last year by Ravi Menon, the director of MAS. This crypto economy that was dismissed by Mohanty as unreal was viewed by Menon to have the prospect of the creation of jobs and the addition of value.
He said that if someday the crypto economy is in power, they wish to be one of the leading crypto players. Crypto will be helping to create jobs, value-addition, etc. According to him, compared to the financial sector, the other economic sectors will gain potentially.
Overview of the market
In the last few years, many crypto exchanges such as Gemini and Binance, turned to the country for their cryptocurrency-friendly stance. The main enticers for such businesses were all crypto-friendly regulations apart from low taxes.
Over the past few months, the Monetary Authority of Singapore issued a lot of stringent digital asset-focused guidelines. For example this year in January, MAS put a ban on crypto-related ads in public spaces and crypto ATMs to operate. Since then, some exchanges such as Binance and others started to shift their base.
As per Mohanty, the country introduced one painfully slow process to license cryptocurrency firms. The country was cautious to present crypto licenses. Crypto.com became the latest firm that won an in-principle license on 22nd June. Singapore has granted a total of 14 licenses along with in-principle approvals.
Mohanty does not hold any digital assets in high regard. But he is very receptive to CBDCs or central bank digital currency. He mentioned that the country will be getting ready for launching its own central bank digital currency within 3 years.
Conclusion
The market regulator of Singapore reprimanded Three Arrows Capital as they filed false information. It caused a blow to the cryptocurrency hedge that liquidated overall failed bets. The MAS said that Three Arrows breached all allowed thresholds for around $250mn assets under the management. Tumbling prices undermined all holdings and the firm failed to meet all demands from various lenders of putting up additional funds to back up its loan. MAS mentioned that Three Arrows were under investigation for one year. In 2013 the company became a fund management company in the country that got registered. It was allowed to manage assets to $250mn. MAS also said it exceeded this limit two times and it was between 2020 July and September and between 2020 November and last year August. At the beginning of September 2021, Three Arrows was seen to shift the management of its only fund to one offshore entity in BVI. Yet it failed to inform the regulator of Singapore that Zhu was the BVI entity’s shareholder too.
