The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the US, Coinbase, announced that Singapore's central bank had given its approval for it to provide payment services in the city-state.
Individuals and institutions can now use services for digital payment tokens thanks to the in-principle approval that the central bank began granting to crypto firms last year. The firms are also subject to regulation by the central bank under the Payment Services Act.
Coinbase, which called it an “important milestone,” said in a statement that it had been expanding its presence in Singapore and that it presently had roughly 100 people there, with product engineers making up the majority of new hires.
Coinbase gets approval to provide payment services in Singapore
Along with Coinbase, other companies with licences include Crypto.com and DBS Vickers, the brokerage operated by Singapore's biggest bank DBS (DBSM.SI).
Singapore has become a key centre in Asia thanks to the financial hub's success in luring enterprises involved in digital asset services from China, India, and other countries in recent years.
But there have also been numerous instances of crypto fallouts in the city-state. Three Arrows Capital, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency hedge fund, started its liquidation in June after failing to fulfil debts totalling hundreds of millions of dollars. In 2020, under a new framework, some 180 crypto firms applied for a crypto payments licence to the Monetary Authority of Singapore.
The demise of the cryptocurrencies Luna and TerraUSD in May had a negative impact on the hedge fund. Both coins were created by Terraform Labs, a Singapore-based corporation. The South Korean police are actively looking for Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Lab.
Singapore is to implement new rules that will make trading cryptocurrencies more challenging for individual investors.
