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Crypto exchange Coinbase has announced in a press release that it has received preliminary regulatory approval from Singapore’s monetary authority (MAS) to offer crypto services in Singapore. Following the in-principle approval, Coinbase can now offer “regulated digital payment token products and services in Singapore.”
Following the approval in Singapore, Coinbase has become one of the few crypto exchanges that have successfully gone through the painfully lengthy and rigid licensing process enacted by the MAS.
In an interview with Financial Times, the top fintech officer at MAS, Sopnendu Mohanty, claimed that the regulatory body had enacted the “painfully lengthy and rigid licensing process for institutions to prohibit bad behaviour rampant in the crypto sector.”
Coinbase expansion into Singapore
Coinbase has quietly been expanding its presence in Singapore has launched a technical hub in the region and increasing its efforts to hire Web3 personnel in the city-state.
Coinbase Venture arm has also invested in more than fifteen Singaporean Web3 startups in a push to boost crypto adoption in Singapore.
Besides announcing the regulatory approval, Coinbase’s press statement also added that the company’s CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong would be attending a stage event in Singapore alongside MAS’s chief fintech officer.
The statement reads:
“We are also excited to confirm that our CEO and co-founder, Brian Armstrong, will be taking the stage at the Singapore Fintech Festival on November 4th, in a fireside chat with Sopnendu Mohanty, the Chief Fintech Officer at MAS.”
In the recent past, Singapore has grown into a global finance hub housing a large number of fintech institutions, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance firms, and corporate banks. This growing pool of fintech institutions has also expressed a desire to explore the budding crypto industry including investing some stake in some of the sector’s digital assets.
Prior to Coinbase’s in-principle approval, the MAS had granted in-principle approval to Crypto.com.
