Singapore Monetary Authority Executive: Singapore Central Bank's review of cryptocurrency service license application has reached the final stage

On July 27, Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Minister of the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) responsible for supervising financial institutions, said that the Singapore central bank is in the final stage of reviewing applications for licenses to provide crypto services, including payments and operations of cryptocurrency exchanges.

To date, Singapore has received more than 480 applications for crypto service licenses under the Payment Services Act, which came into effect in January last year. Of these, about 170 applicants, or 35%, have applied to provide DPT (digital payment token) services, 30 DPT applications were withdrawn and 2 were rejected.

Furthermore, Singapore has not issued cryptocurrency licenses to DPT providers to date. DPT service providers such as cryptocurrency exchanges Binance Asia Services, Coinbase Singapore and Gemini currently operate in Singapore under the Payment Services Act with an exemption from holding a license. The exemption remains in effect until the application is approved or rejected by the Monetary Authority of Singapore, or withdrawn by the applicant.