“Brutal and incessantly harsh:” The Singapore regulator’s breakdown of crypto

Singapore’s financial regulator and central bank have vowed to be “brutal and incessantly harsh” on any “bad behavior” from the cryptocurrency industry.

The comments come from Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) fintech chief Sopnendu Mohanty, explaining in an interview that “if anyone has done a bad thing, we are brutal and incessantly harsh.”

He also retaliated against the rhetoric of certain crypto market participants who have criticized the regulator for not being friendly enough to crypto, and instead questioned the legitimacy of the market and said:

“We have been called out by many cryptocurrencies for not being friendly, my answer has been: Friendly for what? Friendly for a real economy or friendly for some unreal economy?”

The Fintech CEO believes that the world is “lost in private currency” and is the reason behind the broader market turmoil. Mohanty added that the city state adopted an “extremely draconian” and “painfully slow” due diligence process for licensing crypto companies in response to the regulator’s conservative stance on crypto.

Singapore introduced licensing for crypto companies in January 2020 and has been strict on which companies can be approved for a license. Cointelegraph reported in December 2022 that MAS had withdrawn approvals for over 100 licenses from companies that had applied.

In January, cryptocurrency providers were banned from advertising their services in public areas such as public transport and extended to public websites as well as print, broadcast and social media.

MAS is also expanding its ability to monitor crypto companies. In April, the regulator adopted new requirements for companies to obtain a license and be subject to anti-money laundering (AML) and anti-terrorist financing requirements if they wanted to offer services outside the country.

Related: Singapore to explore digital asset tokenization in public chains

Many cryptocurrencies were created in Singapore due to both low taxes and the perception that the city-state was one of the more crypto-friendly, but the regulatory tightening suggests that this is changing as the country focuses on its digital central bank currency (CBDC). ).

On Tuesday, the payment system provider Mojaloop Foundation opened a CBDC Center of Excellence (COE) in Singapore, which sees MAS in its working group and Mohanty as a board advisor.

With the opening of COE, Mohanty believes that a state-funded alternative cryptocurrency can be launched within three years.

COE aims to reduce the costs and inefficiencies of payment platforms and cross-border payments. Mohanty said he welcomed the move as a “step forward into the future of financial services”.