- Singapore plans to become a global cryptocurrency hub, but does not accept cryptocurrencies due to their volatility and speculation, sending mixed signals to the industry.
- Singapore wants to be a hub for digital assets, but not for cryptocurrency transactions and speculation, Ravi Menon, CEO of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, said at the Singapore FinTech Festival.
- City-states have shown their acceptance of blockchain technology and have launched several projects, such as Project Ubin and Project Guardian, testing blockchain applications in financial services.
© Singapore's CBD seen at dusk in this 2013 photo provided by CNBCSingapore still wants to be a hub for digital assets, but not for cryptocurrency speculation, said Ravi Menon, CEO of the Central Bank of Singapore.
"Whether a crypto center is experimenting with programmable money for use cases of digital assets, or tokenizing financial assets to increase efficiency and reduce risk in financial transactions, yes, we want to be a crypto center," he said. said Menon in his opening statement. Speaking at the FinTech 2022 festival in Singapore on Thursday.
Tokenization of a financial asset turns its ownership rights into digital tokens.
DBS Bank is piloting Singapore's first direct digital cash register for government bonds, allowing merchants to schedule and execute distribution and usage automatically.
"But in terms of cryptocurrency trading and speculation, that's not the kind of cryptocurrency site we want to be," Menon said.
Singapore is aiming to become a global crypto hub, but many retail investors have been hit hard by the industry after losing their life savings trading cryptocurrencies. The city-state has repeatedly warned that cryptocurrency trading is "high risk and not suitable for the general public" due to its volatility and speculation. It also banned crypto advertising in public spaces and social media in January 2021, and recently proposed new measures to protect retail investors following Terra Luna's $60 trillion debacle.
However, Singapore has openly embraced blockchain technology and has initiated several projects. These include the Ubin project, which has successfully experimented with blockchain for payments and securities clearing and settlement.
Another is Project Guardian, which recently completed its first industrial pilot in forex and government bond trading with DBS Bank, JPMorgan and SBI Digital Asset Holdings.
"The first pilot of Project Guardian has demonstrated its potential to reduce risk in business operations," said Menon.
"These projects aim to increase efficiencies in the product value chain, reduce costs for efficient issuance and maintenance, and improve transparency and accessibility. We believe Project Guardian can help pave the way for the next evolution of Singapore's financial markets," said Menon.
the next
MAS will continue with two new industry pilots: one spearheaded by Standard Chartered Bank's token issuance initiative linked to commercial financial assets, and the other working with HSBC and UOB Marketnode to enable local digital issuance of government products. .
In his speech, Menon also announced that MAS will launch the Ubin+ project, a global initiative for cross-border exchange and settlement of foreign exchange transactions using central bank wholesale digital currencies.
The Ubin project was launched in 2016 and is the starting point for the development of Portior, a blockchain-based payments clearing and settlement network from DBS Bank, JPMorgan and Temasek.