Singapore: Central Bank ‘Assessing’ Need For More Cryptocurrency Regulation

Singapore’s central bank has said it is again looking at cryptocurrency regulation, appearing to amend previous comments about a hands-off approach, Reuters reported Thursday, March 1.

Part of a speech quoted by various publications Thursday saw the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) deputy managing director Ong Chong Tee note an “assessment” about possible new regulations of cryptocurrency in the city-state.

“We are assessing if additional regulations are required for investor protection,” he said.

The latest comments contrast with those of Singapore’s deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam, who in early February 2018 told parliament that there were “no systematic risk concerns” posed by the phenomenon to the banking sector or wider economy.

While Shanmugaratnam added authorities continued to “closely study” Bitcoin and associated assets, Shanmugaratnam made no mention of regulation being on the horizon.

A week later in mid-February, MAS chief fintech officer Sopnendu Mohanty said in an interview with CNBC that speculative activity from traders posed a threat to cryptocurrency as a whole, adding that MAS hoped to find a “use case [… ] in the long run” for Blockchain technology.

As Cointelegraph reported last week, Singapore remains one of the most permissive environments for businesses in the Blockchain and cryptocurrency spheres.

Singapore’s approach has even spawned an international government fan club, with lawmakers in Kazakhstan publicly announcing their wish to follow in the city-state’s footsteps regarding Blockchain policy in particular.