Coinbase Receives Regulatory Approval In Singapore

On Tuesday, cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase announced that it has received a regulatory license in Singapore. This latest announcement comes as the US company continues to increase efforts to expand abroad. Via a blog post, Coinbase said that “We are excited to announce that we have received our In-Principle Approval (IPA) as a Major Payments Institution license holder from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). This license will allow us to offer regulated Digital Payment Token products and services in the island state. We are also excited to confirm that our CEO and Co-founder, Brian Armstrong will be taking the stage at Singapore Fintech Festival on November 4th, in a fireside chat with Sopnendu Mohanty, the Chief Fintech Officer at MAS.” 

The license which is an in-principle approval to provide regulated digital token products and services in the inland state was given to Coinbase by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS); the country’s central bank. The regulatory approval also comes at a challenging time for the crypto market. This year alone, about $2 trillion has been wiped off the crypto market. Leading cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ether (ETH) have continued to see their value decline throughout this year.

To survive the crypto market pressure, cryptocurrency companies have had to re-strategize and a handful of them had to lay off employees to survive the difficult time. In June, Coinbase laid off 18 percent of its workforce to survive the crypto market pressure. Other crypto businesses such as Voyager have filed for bankruptcy.

Irrespective of the recent macroeconomic realities, crypto market pressure, and uncertainties, Coinbase will be pushing ahead with its plans for international expansion and is looking to hire people across new markets in Europe.

Before the announcement of the license received by Coinbase, the company has been making steady investments in the country. Last year, Coinbase announce Singapore as one of its tech development hubs. The country is also the hub of its business focused on institutional investors in the Asia-Pacific region. “Singapore serves as the hub for Coinbase’s APAC institutional business. As the top financial center in Asia, and the third in the world, after New York and London, Singapore is a regional, or in some cases a global hub, for a large number of banks, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, commodity trading firms, corporates, and HNWIs, all of whom have been showing increasing interest to invest directly in digital assets. Today’s announcement underlines our commitment to Singapore as a regional hub that allows us to unlock new capabilities for Singapore-based institutional and corporate clients in the future,” Coinbase blog post reads.

The blog post also explained that “Gaining this in-principle approval from MAS is an important step, as we plan to launch our full suite of retail, institutional, and ecosystem products,” Coinbase said in its blog post. Coinbase, therefore, joins the growing list of companies that have received such regulatory approval from Singapore.