The remarks from the regulator's chief fintech officer might see the city-state lose its perception together of the most crypto-friendly countries within the world.
Singapore’s financial regulator and central bank has pledged to be “brutal and relentlessly hard” on any “bad behavior” from the cryptocurrency industry.
The comments come from monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)’s chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty, explaining in an interview that “if somebody has done a nasty factor, we tend to are brutal and unrelentingly laborious.”
He additionally hit back at the rhetoric of bound crypto market participants who have criticized the regulator for not being friendly enough to crypto, and instead questioned the legitimacy of the market, saying:
“We have been called out by many cryptocurrencies for not being friendly, my response has been: Friendly for what? Friendly for a real economy or friendly for some unreal economy?”
The fintech chief believes the globe is “lost in camera currency” and is that the cause behind the broader market turmoil. Mohanty side the city-state enacted an “extremely draconian” and “painfully slow” due diligence method for licensing crypto businesses in response to the conservative stance the regulator has towards crypto.
Singapore introduced licensing for crypto corporations in Jan 2020 and has been rigorous on that firms are approved for a license. Cointelegraph reported in December 2022 that the MAS had knocked-back approvals for over a hundred licenses from firms who had applied.
In Jan cryptocurrency providers were barred from advertising their services publicly areas like public transportation that extended to public websites as well as print, broadcast and social media.
MAS is extending its ability to police crypto businesses too, in April the regulator passed new needs for firms to get a license and be subject to Anti-Money lavation and Combating the funding of terrorism needs if they wished to produce services outside of the country.
( Jesse Coghlan, Cointelegraph, 2022 )