Summary
- The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has officially stated it will regulate virtual asset companies that only have nominal addresses in Singapore while actually operating overseas.
- MAS also requires Digital Token Service Providers (DTSP) serving only overseas clients to obtain licenses, while making clear its supervisory intentions over companies registered as legal entities.
- With this measure, MAS aims to block speculative arbitrage and damage to its international reputation, as well as prevent recurrence of cases like Terraform Labs and 3AC by tightening regulations.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has formalized regulations for virtual asset (cryptocurrency) companies that merely use Singapore as a nominal address but actually operate their business overseas.
According to CoinDesk on the 13th (local time), MAS has significantly tightened regulations on virtual asset companies based in Singapore in response to the bankruptcies of Terraform Labs and 3AC.
As per the update on the 6th, MAS announced that from the 30th, Digital Token Service Providers (DTSPs) that offer services only to overseas customers will be required to obtain a license. Furthermore, if a company is registered as a legal entity in Singapore, MAS clarified its intention to supervise such firms. The aim is to completely block policy arbitrage using Singapore's name.
Singapore's international reputation had previously suffered due to the bankruptcies of virtual asset companies registered in Singapore in the form of paper companies. Among them, Terraform Labs had only rented a shared office without any substantive local operations in Singapore, and 3AC had shifted its base of operations to Dubai before its collapse.
Meanwhile, virtual asset exchanges such as Bitget, Bybit, and WazirX have ceased their operations in Singapore.
Heecheol Yang
heecheol@bloomingbit.ioHello, I'm a reporter at bloomingbit
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