Finance minister says Singapore will tighten crypto regulation
The deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Lawrence Wong, announced that Singapore plans to tighten crypto regulations in the country following the increased financial risks involved in the sector.
Singapore matches towards sanctioning crypto
The deputy Prime Minister of Singapore, Lawrence Wong, revealed that Singapore is planning to tighten crypto regulations in the country following the increased financial risks involved in the sector.
In an interview with Mr. John Micklethwait, the editor-in-chief of Bloomberg Editorial and Research, Lawrence Wong revealed that before the fall of FTX, Singapore was already in plans to impose more strict regulations on entities and participants in the crypto and derivative sector.
Micklethwait asked Wong, who also happens to be the Minister of Finance in Singapore if the severe turbulence caused the collapse of the FTX exchange and its affiliates had raised the eyebrows of regulators and prompted them to react. In the query, the Bloomberg editor-in-chief also highlighted this relating to the fact that Singapore is one of the largest crypto centers in the world.
In response, Wong revealed that Singapore had been looking into tightening crypto regulations even before the FTX drama unfolded.
“We’ve said this for a long time, even when people criticized us for saying (it). We need to take a strong stance against crypto speculation and trading, especially by retail investors.
We plan to tighten. We will review the necessary rules. But we will continue to embrace innovation around digital assets, which we think has tremendous potential,”
The minister stated.
FTX’s ripple effect on the crypto market
Wong’s announcement comes just days after Temasek, an investment fund in Singapore, incurred losses after having a $210 million exposure on the insolvent and defunct FTX. Temasek had allegedly purchased a 1% stake in the FTX exchange after conducting due diligence for eight consecutive months. The firm wrote off $175 million out of the stake.
The downfall of FTX also sparked crypto regulations discussions in Australia as the Australian Treasury announced monitoring the exchange’s case closely. The native treasury announced to set regulations that will umbrella crypto volatility and transparency in crypto institutions. As the digital world grows exponentially, nations may jump on the ship to try and protect consumers from financial catastrophes. Will the regulators succeed?
