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The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is introducing measures to ensure investor protection and market integrity in the cryptocurrency industry. This comes on the back of a public consultation that ran till October 2022 and received a significant feedback from a diverse set of respondents. This consultation looked into reducing the risk posed to customers by crypto trading
MAS is instituting stricter requirements for service providers in digital payment tokens across Singapore. This includes mandating that crypto services providers be locked into a statutory trust ensuring customer assets are safe from losses or misuse. This extends to entitle customers the right to claim/retrieve their assets in case of insolvency of the provider. Additionally, DPT providers need to perform daily reconciliations, keep access & operational controls, keep records etc.
Furthermore, even though there is a move to restrict retail customers from depositing with staking services etc., MAS has kept provisions for Institutional and accredited investors. Some common suggestions to the public consultation such as allowing retail lending in the presence with risk evidence & active customer action, have not gone unheard either. MAS is keeping a close monitoring circuit and exploring options to ensure that these new regulations remain proportionate and relevant.
Blogger Alert: Crypto Industry learnings were often hard fought for in the past few years in Singapore, millions of dollars were burnt & some major entities folded due to a malfunctioning service/lending setup. Let’s hope these lessons are internalised and promote both a safe crypto environment coupled with no compromise on volumes.
