Singapore’s principal financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has officially approved two companies to offer cryptocurrency services in the country. MAS issued licenses to Australian crypto exchange Independent Reserve and DBS Bank’s brokerage arm, DBS Vickers (DBSV), allowing them to provide digital payment token services under the Payment Services Act (PS Act), on Friday. According to an announcement by Independent Reserve, the firm became the first Australian cryptocurrency exchange available to retail and institutional investors in Singapore. Founded in Australia back in 2013, the company started setting up its first overseas operations in Singapore in late 2019, offering …

Binance has announced some changes to its crypto trading services for customers in Singapore. According to a statement on its website published on Monday, Singapore-based users will be geo-fenced from certain account functions on the Binance.com website. Binance users in Singapore will no longer have access to fiat deposits, crypto spot trading, liquid swap and crypto purchases via fiat channels on the website. “We will be restricting Singapore users in respect of the Regulated Payments Services in-line with our commitment to compliance,” the statement added. Based on the new directive, Binance users in Singapore have been urged to cease all …

Digital asset manager Cobo has raised $40 million to advance institutional pathways to decentralized finance products, offering compelling evidence that more Asia-Pacific investors are seeking secure access to the DeFi market. The Series B financing will be used by Cobo to develop the first DeFi-as-a-service, or DaaS, infrastructure, which allows institutions and their customers to access decentralized finance products in a compliant manner, the company announced Wednesday. Specifically, the capital will be deployed to acquire regulatory licenses and ensure that anti-money laundering guidelines are followed on all products. Cobo further explained that DaaS gives institutions more secure exposure to DeFi …

Singapore-based crypto lending platform Hodlnaut will partner with United States crypto exchange Okcoin in an effort to drive adoption and crypto transactions among users. In a Wednesday announcement, Hodlnaut said the partnership would allow its users and those on Okcoin to purchase cryptocurrencies and earn rewards on their holdings. The lending platform said Singapore-based users already use Okcoin as a fiat on-ramp solution to go from the Singapore dollar to Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH). “We are building the next generation of tools to help onboard the investors and traders who have been on the fence about crypto,” said Okcoin's …

Global cryptocurrency exchange Binance announced Sunday that it will roll back product offerings in Singapore amid warnings from financial regulators that the company may have violated payments laws. Beginning on Thursday, Singaporeans will no longer be able to trade cryptocurrencies or receive payments denominated in the Singapore dollar, better known as SGD, according to a Sunday blog post. The Binance mobile app will also be removed from Singapore’s Apple and Google Play stores. The exchange said all SGD trading pairs will be removed at 04:00 UTC on Thursday, with users advised to complete all peer-to-peer trades 24 hours in advance …

Binance’s affiliate United States-based cryptocurrency exchange, Binance.US, is targeting an initial public offering (IPO) in 2024, according to Binance CEO and founder Changpeng Zhao. Binance.US is planning to close a large private funding round in the next two months that would allow the firm to become more independent from the global exchange, Zhao said on Wednesday in an interview with tech publication The Information. Zhao is confident that the global crypto exchange will survive the ongoing regulatory crackdown by global regulators, and that Binance.US will move toward a public listing in three years. “Binance.US is just going to do what …

The central banks of Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and South Africa have announced a joint initiative to trial international settlements using central bank digital currencies (CBDC). The initiative, dubbed Project Dunbar, will prototype shared platforms enabling direct transfers between institutions using digital currencies issued by multiple central banks. The pilot’s findings will be used to inform the “development of global and regional platforms” in addition to supporting the G20’s roadmap for improving cross-border payments. Project Dunbar will be carried out in partnership with the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Innovation Hub from its Singapore Center. The project will engage multiple partners …

Thailand's Bank of Ayudhya (BAY) — in which Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group (MUFG) holds a 76.9% stake — participated in the latest funding round for the Asia-Pacific-focused crypto exchange Zipmex. The $41 million raise, which saw the participation of two publicly traded Thai media firms and overseas venture capital (VC) funds — in addition to BAY — accounts for the lion’s share of Zipmex’s total $52 million in funds raised to date. BAY’s corporate venture capital arm, Krungsri Finnovate, invests in startups across various fintech areas, including blockchain, lending, e-commerce and cross-border remittance. Commenting on the news of the Zipmex …

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has shortlisted 15 “Global CBDC Challenge” participants to help build an in-house retail central bank digital currency (CBDC). An announcement shared by the MAS shows that the finalists include six companies from Singapore, four from the United States, and one each from Australia, Barbados, Germany, France and Switzerland, of which only three winners will be selected to deploy a retail CBDC in Singapore. Soon after the Singaporean central bank announced cash prizes for digital currency ideas back on June 28, the challenge reportedly saw the participation of over 300 fintech companies spread across more …

Japanese cryptocurrency exchange Liquid has secured $120 million in debt financing from FTX Trading after suffering a nearly $100-million hack last week. Announcing the news Thursday, Liquid Group and FTX Trading — the owner and operator of crypto exchange FTX — said that the new funds will help Liquid improve its balance sheet and contribute to the exchange’s licensing opportunities in the key jurisdictions of Japan and Singapore. The new funding also targets new capital generation, increasing liquidity, as well as improving Liquid’s customer support, the announcement notes. FTX CEO and founder Sam Bankman-Fried said that the new financing underpins …

The Australian Border Force (ABF), Infocomm Media Development Authority of Singapore (IMDA) and Singapore Customs, along with other industry representations, have concluded a blockchain trial project analyzing the status of the countries’ digital verification systems in issuing and verifying trade documents. The collaborative venture was a part of the Australia–Singapore Digital Economy Agreement — an initiative designed to increase the efficiency of trade between the two countries, as well as to minimize economic friction in cross-border payments. The interoperability of the two digital verification systems — the ABF’s Intergovernmental Ledger and IMDA’s TradeTrust reference implementation — was analyzed to understand …

Being a crypto-friendly country has paid off in terms of adoption, as a new study about Singapore revealed. “The State of Crypto in Singapore Report 2021,” conducted by crypto exchange Gemini in partnership with CoinMarketCap and Seedly, found that more than two-thirds of Singaporeans who have financial investments currently hold crypto. The report, which sampled 4,348 Singapore-based adults who self-identify as having or being interested in personal finance and investment products, shows that 67% of the respondents currently own crypto assets. While one in five crypto holders are women, the study profiles the average Singaporean crypto holder as a “29-year-old …