Monetary Authority Of Singapore Promises To Be 'Brutal' On The Crypto Industry

The Monetary Authority of Singapore (“MAS”), Singapore’s central bank, has reiterated the island country’s sense of stringency with regard to digital assets in a fresh comment promising more rigorous policies on crypto-related activities in coming times.

Singapore now pushes forward policies that have scared away crypto firms

In an interview with the British daily paper, Financial Times, the Chief Fintech Officer for MAS, Sopnendu Mohanty revealed that the central bank would be “brutal and unrelentingly hard” on any form of misconduct perceived in the cryptocurrency industry within the country.

In what seems to be an elaborate sense of paradigm shift, Singapore, once considered a “crypto haven”, now pushes forward policies and legislation that have in recent times scared away crypto firms domiciled within the country.

Mohanty, however, appears to care little for the reputation of the Southeast Asian city-state within the crypto community. “We have been called out by many cryptocurrencies for being unfriendly. My response has been: friendly for what? Friendly for a real economy or friendly for some unreal economy,” he commented in the FT interview.

Speaking further, Mohanty noted, “we have no tolerance for any market bad behavior. If somebody has done a bad thing, we are brutal and unrelentingly hard”.

Singapore is no longer the world’s most crypto-friendly country 

Some would argue that this stringency is universal and should be expected of any financial regulator within any country, but it appears to only affect crypto firms as several crypto businesses have eschewed Singapore due to the strict policies.

In January of this year, the country prohibited the advertisement of crypto offerings by firms in public places, stating that such assets pose a threat to the financial status of the citizens as it dubs them “highly risky and not sustainable for the general public.”

A month before, crypto exchange Binance withdrew its application for an operating license in Singapore, informing its Singaporean users of the termination of its trading platform within the country in two months’ time.

Additionally, according to Coincub’s crypto-friendly ranking guide for Q1 2022, Singapore which once held the top position as the world’s most crypto-friendly country has been knocked down by Germany. Singapore now ranks second, just above the US. But with these vows of stricter measures, we could see the country rank further below in Q2 2022.

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