Singapore Grants a License for Payment Services to Coinbase
In a statement, Coinbase called it a “significant milestone” and noted that it had been growing its workforce in Singapore, where it currently employed close to 100 people, with product engineers making up the majority of new hires.
A Significant Milestone
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.
Coinbase, which called it a “significant milestone,” said in a statement that it had been expanding its presence in Singapore and that it currently had nearly 100 employees there, with product engineers making up the majority of new hires.
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.
In 2020, under a new system, about 180 cryptocurrency businesses applied for a license to process crypto payments from the Monetary Authority of Singapore. After a thorough due diligence process that is still ongoing, Singapore has granted 17 in-principle approvals and licenses.
Hassan Ahmed, Coinbase’s regional director for Southeast Asia, stated that the company views Singapore as a strategic market and a center of Web3 innovation worldwide.
In addition to Coinbase, there are also others that have been granted licenses, including Crypto.com and DBS Vickers, the brokerage operated by Singapore’s largest bank, DBS.
To learn more about Coinbase, visit their website
Crypto in Singapore
Singapore has become a major center in Asia thanks to the financial hub’s success in luring firms involved in digital asset services from China, India, and other countries in recent years.
But there have also been numerous instances of crypto fallout in the city state. Three Arrows Capital, a Singapore-based cryptocurrency hedge fund, started its liquidation in June after failing to fulfill obligations totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.
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 currently looking for Do Kwon, the founder of Terraform Lab.
However, the head of the MAS has attempted to distance Singapore from these businesses, claiming in July that organizations like Three Arrows and Terraform Labs were “so-called Singapore-based” businesses with “little to do” with the city-crypto state’s regulations.
Singapore intends to implement new rules that will make trading cryptocurrencies more challenging for retail investors.
