April 6, 2022
By Sharan Kaur Phillora
Singapore has approved a law that will tighten rules for cryptocurrency providers in the latest sign of its tentative embrace of the industry, according to Bloomberg. As per the legislation, only those service providers operating overseas will be able to obtain licenses to operate in the city-state.
Here’s what we know:
This additional tightening comes after the financial regulator’s latest move to discourage companies in the crypto space from advertising their services to the public, underscoring the country’s cautious approach.
“[Digital token] service providers created in Singapore without providing any [digital token] services in Singapore are currently unregulated for AML/CFT,” MAS board member Alvin Tan said. “Further, these entities may claim to be headquartered here to take advantage of Singapore’s global reputation,” he added. “This creates reputational risks for Singapore.”
Gary Gensler, the chairman of the US Securities and Exchange Commission, has also stated that his agency aims to increase regulatory oversight of the $2 trillion cryptocurrency market to protect investors from fraud attacks.
He further added, “These crypto platforms play roles similar to those of traditional regulated exchanges.” He said, “The SEC will partner with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to address platforms that trade both crypto-based security tokens and commodity tokens, as it currently only oversees those that trade securities.”
Earlier in January the MAS had issued guidelines on the advertising of crypto services to the general public in an attempt to discourage retail investors from crypto trading.
About the author
Sharan Kaur Phillora’s thirst for knowledge has led her to study many different subjects, including NFTs and Blockchain technology – two emerging technologies that will change how we interact with each other in the future. When she isn’t exploring a new idea or concept, she enjoys reading literary masterpieces.
