Singapore is reportedly the next port of call for Kakao’s globalization agenda for its legacy blockchain platform Klaytn. According to a report by The Korea Herald on Monday, Kakao has established two new blockchain-based entities — the Klaytn Foundation and Krust — in the city-state. The Klaytn Foundation is a nonprofit organization, while Krust serves as a global accelerator for blockchain technology adoption. Kakao plans to use both entities to foster broad-based penetration of its Klaytn blockchain project in Singapore. Stating its mission during the launch earlier in August, the Kakao Foundation said that it would work “proactively and systematically” …

Singapore’s largest bank, DBS Bank, has expanded its scope of supported cryptocurrency services by scoring another regulatory approval. DBS Bank’s brokerage arm, DBS Vickers (DBSV), has received in-principle approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) to provide digital payment token services as a payment institution, the company officially announced Thursday. The approval is granted under Singapore’s Payment Services Act, paving the way for DBSV’s payment license. Once licensed, the firm will be able to directly support asset managers and companies trading in digital payment tokens through DBS Bank’s cryptocurrency-enabled exchange, DBS Digital Exchange (DDEx). In conjunction with the MAS …

Asia-Pacific crypto-fiat trading platform Zipmex has forged a strategic partnership with Visa in a bid to improve the convenience of its payment programs and products. The platform's payment network ZipSend, designed to enable users to spend their crypto, will be integrated into Visa’s worldwide network of 70 million merchants. Following the partnership, Zipmex aims to release a Visa-branded payment card later this year. Zipmex, which has compliant operations in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Australia, currently has a user base of over 200,000 and has reported over $1 billion in gross transaction volume since its launch in late 2019. The company …

Independent Reserve, an Australian crypto exchange founded in 2013, has become the first cryptocurrency exchange in Singapore to receive an “in-principle approval” to operate as a fully regulated virtual asset service provider (VASP). In a letter from the city-state’s de facto central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the exchange was approved under the terms of the Payments Services Act, which came into effect in January 2020 and provides clear-cut rules and regulations for crypto exchanges and service providers seeking to operate locally. Since January, VASPs awaiting their applications’ approval have been permitted to continue to operate under the …

Cryptocurrency adoption is growing in Singapore, especially among younger generations looking to capitalize on the generational wealth potential of Bitcoin (BTC) and other digital assets, according to the inaugural 2021 Independent Reserve Cryptocurrency Index, or IRCI, a survey conducted by Asia-Pacific cryptocurrency exchange Independent Reserve. The survey, which is based on a poll of 1,000 Singaporeans from a representative background of gender, age and location, revealed that 43% of the polled respondents said they owned cryptocurrency, with 46% planning to buy digital assets in the next 12 months. Two-thirds, or 66%, of respondents in the 26 to 45 age bracket …

Jihan Wu, crypto billionaire and the co-founder and ex-CEO of Bitcoin (BTC) mining giant Bitmain, believes that the current wave of regulatory interventions in the crypto industry may be “a good thing in the long term.” Speaking to CNBC during the Asia Tech x Singapore conference this week, Wu noted that the sector had already grown almost to “a trillion dollar market cap industry,” with over 10% of United States citizens having some involvement with the new asset class. In these conditions, he argued that stronger regulatory involvement would be a net gain for crypto over time: “I think the …

Financial authorities in France and Singapore are actively exploring the cross-border applications of central bank digital currencies (CBDCs). In a joint announcement on Thursday, the Bank of France and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said that they successfully completed a whole cross-border payment and settlement experiment using CBDCs and blockchain technology. The CBDC experiment was conducted with support and expertise from JPMorgan's digital currency-focused Onyx division on a permissioned, privacy-enabled blockchain based on the investment bank's Quorum blockchain infrastructure. As part of the experiment, the Bank of France and MAS simulated cross-border and cross-currency transactions for a Singapore dollar-based …

Bybit, the world’s fifth-largest cryptocurrency derivatives exchange by trading volume, is planning to impose Know Your Customer rules. The Singapore-based company posted several statements on introducing major KYC policies on its platform in order to “improve security compliance for all traders.” A spokesperson for Bybit told Cointelegraph that Bybit will introduce KYC procedures starting from July 12 to help better protect user accounts and funds. Individuals will have two KYC verification levels with Bitcoin withdrawals capped at 50 Bitcoin (BTC) and 100 BTC. In order to receive the KYC 1 level verification, users will be required to identity document and …

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank and a major financial regulator, is challenging fintech companies to pitch solutions for a central bank digital currency, or CBDC. On Monday, the central bank officially announced a global challenge that seeks new retail CBDC solutions which enhance payment efficiencies and promote financial inclusion. As part of the initiative, the MAS is planning to distribute 50,000 Singapore dollars, or $37,000 USD at time of publication, to each of three challenge winners. They will also provide expert mentorship to 15 finalists in an effort t encourage rapid development of digital currency solutions. …

BTCChina, the operator of China’s oldest Bitcoin (BTC) exchange, is no longer in the crypto business, according to some reports. The company sold its stake in the Singapore-registered Bitcoin exchange ZG.com to an unidentified foundation in Dubai, Chinese news agency The 21st Century Business Herald recently reported. According to the report, ZG.com is a completely independent crypto exchange business with registrations in the United States, Singapore, Estonia, Seychelles and other countries. BTCChina reportedly invested in ZG.com in January 2019. According to a report by the South China Morning Post, BTCChina said that it was exiting the Bitcoin business “in response …

With the crypto market turning up its pace of growth over the last year and a half, the idea behind central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) seems to have gained an increasing amount of traction among many governments and retail banking institutions. In this regard, as per a study recently released by consulting giant PwC, more than 60 central banks have been exploring the unique value proposition put forth by CBDCs. Furthermore, it bears mentioning that following the dawn of the coronavirus pandemic, the use of physical cash has continued to dwindle globally, with many now transitioning to digital payments in …

Singapore-based multinational banking corporation DBS Bank has launched its first-ever security token offering by issuing a digital bond. The DBS digital bond has been priced at $11.35 million and comes with a six-month tenor and coupon rate of 0.60% annually. The offering was carried out through a private placement hosted by DBS Digital Exchange, or DDEx, marking DDEx’s first STO. To encourage investor engagement, the bond is set to be traded in board lots of 10,000 Singapore dollars (roughly $7,560) — a dramatic reduction compared to the 250,000 Singapore dollar board lots that traditional wholesale bonds are traded in. The …