Singapore | Crypto

BLOOM seeks to cut costs by helping financial institutions coordinate cross-border use of stablecoins and tokenized deposits. Bank Negara Malaysia and the Bank of Thailand joined Singapore’s BLOOM initiative on Friday as policymaker members. BLOOM, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency, is a public-private initiative that intends to help financial institutions use stablecoins and tokenized deposits for cross-border payments. According to the Monetary Authority of Singapore, BLOOM aims to cut costs and help institutions bring services to market faster by reducing the need for institutions to set up arrangements with each counterparty or market. Read more

Network School founder Balaji Srinivasan wants to turn Farcaster into a haven for well-mannered techno-optimists. He had to do a bit of housekeeping first. Balaji Srinivasan’s Network School has begun its reign over the decentralized social platform Farcaster. Its first order of business? An apparent wave of bans that has prompted backlash from members of the decentralized social network.  Network School on Thursday announced it has acquired Farcaster from Neynar, rebranding it as the Network State Protocol. The same day, several users said on X that their Farcaster accounts had been restricted to “read-only,” as a result of previous posts that broke its new rules.  “I know most of these folks. They shaped Farcaster with their quirks and wit,” said Kunal Gandhi, former India ecosystem lead at Eigen Labs. “Obliterating accounts from the get-go for past posts is pretty silly. Goes against the ethos of decentralized social.” Read more

The exchange paired walkouts and memes with a ten-trader tournament; its displayed leaderboard listed Intern first without confirming a winner. The post Coinbase streams $150,000 Singapore trading cup and crowns its first champion appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Standard Chartered plans custody for cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized assets for institutional and eligible corporate clients in Singapore. Standard Chartered announced plans to launch digital asset custody services for institutional clients in Singapore. The London-headquartered multinational bank plans to offer custody services for select cryptocurrencies, stablecoins and tokenized real-world assets to institutional clients and corporate clients qualifying as accredited investors, subject to applicable regulatory requirements, according to a Thursday press release. Cointelegraph asked Standard Chartered which cryptocurrencies its custody service will support but did not receive an immediate response. Read more

Singapore’s crypto economy grows 55%, South Korea set to make crypto market makers legal, and Chinese spy ministry warns would-be foreign spies it’s watching the blockchain. CHINA China’s Ministry of State Security has toughened its rhetoric on the risks of cryptocurrencies, highlighting their role in crime and stressing transactions are not really anonymous. According to the South China Morning Post the spooks published an article on social media stating cryptocurrencies are used to facilitate money laundering and cyberattacks and serve as “accomplices” in espionage. Read more

Singapore’s crypto economy grew 55.4% to $284 billion as institutional-platform activity surged 94%, while the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam stood out for small-value P2P transfers. Singapore’s crypto activity rose 55.4% to $284 billion in the year ended June 2026, bucking a regional contraction and regaining its position as the largest crypto economy in Central and Southeast Asia and Oceania (CSAO), according to Chainalysis. Much of the growth came from institutional platform activity, which increased 94% to $60 billion, concentrated among a small number of market makers, over-the-counter trading firms, and institutional brokerages. Chainalysis said the broader CSAO crypto economy contracted 6.8% over the same period.  “The growth in Singapore’s institutional platform ecosystem was very concentrated and marked by mostly high-volume activity by existing platforms rather than the dynamic entry of new services,” Chainalysis told Cointelegraph.  Read more

The Singapore firm plans merchant, enterprise-portal and app expansion as SBI joins the Vertex-led round. The post Why SBI just put millions behind a Singapore startup’s stablecoin push appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Gemini’s local entity is authorized to provide digital payment token and cross-border money transfer services without standard transaction-volume limits. Crypto exchange Gemini has received a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), completing its transition from in-principle approval granted nearly two years ago.  On Wednesday, Gemini said the license was awarded to Gemini Digital Payments Singapore, its local entity. The MAS Financial Institutions Directory lists the company as authorized to provide digital payment token services and cross-border money transfers.  MPI license holders can provide regulated payment services without being subject to the transaction-volume limits imposed on standard payment institutions. However, MAS said major payment institutions face more comprehensive regulation because their operations’ scale poses greater risks.  Read more

Singapore is considering allowing jointly issued cross-border stablecoins into its regulatory regime, revisiting its earlier decision to restrict the framework to domestic issuance. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is reconsidering its earlier restriction on stablecoins issued across multiple jurisdictions, proposing a route for some jointly issued tokens to qualify under its regulatory framework. MAS opened a public consultation on Tuesday, covering legislative amendments to implement its stablecoin framework and additional policy proposals reflecting developments since 2023. Under one proposal, stablecoins jointly issued by a Singapore issuer and a foreign issuer could be regulated under the framework and labeled “MAS-regulated stablecoins,” provided that the associated risks are sufficiently mitigated. Read more

[PRESS RELEASE – Singapore, Singapore, August 27th, 2026] Two days at Marina Bay Sands in Singapore, on October 7-8, alongside TOKEN2049, with product reveals, leading voices in AI, and a live attempt at a sustained TPS record. The Sui community worldwide is invited to Sui Basecamp 2026, held October 7-8 at Marina Bay Sands in […]

Amid a $473 million legal dispute, RedotPay says it expects Binance to end its Singapore case, while Binance says its claims remain active. Binance and RedotPay are disputing whether a Singapore case related to their nearly $473 million Hong Kong legal battle is coming to an end. The stablecoin payments card issuer told Cointelegraph on Tuesday that it expects Binance to discontinue the Singapore proceedings following a hearing on Aug. 7. “RedotPay will be seeking legal costs arising from the discontinuance of the matter from the claimant,” a spokesperson for RedotPay said, adding that the parties would try to agree on costs. However, Binance said it has no plans to abandon its claims. “Reports that Binance will be withdrawing its Singapore claims are false,” a Binance spokesperson told Cointelegraph, adding that the company “is not abandoning its claims and has informed both the court and RedotPay accordingly.” Read more

Coinbase plans to expand its Singapore office from 150 to about 200 employees by the end of 2026 as it expands its presence in the Lion City. Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase reportedly plans to expand its presence in Singapore and grow its headcount from 150 to about 200 staff members by the end of 2026.  The cryptocurrency exchange is mainly looking to hire more engineers, customer service, relationship management staff and institutional sales representatives for its Singapore office, which opened at One Raffles Quay on Wednesday, Hassan Ahmed, Coinbase’s country director for Singapore, told the Business Times in an interview. Ahmed said that Singapore is increasingly becoming a strategic hub for cryptocurrency innovation. Coinbase received a major payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the city-state’s central bank, in October 2023, enabling it to expand its services to Singaporean individuals and institutions. Read more

The warning list does not stop the network, but it shifts pressure to the front end users actually see. The post Singapore puts Hyperliquid on warning list over protections it says it never claimed appeared first on CryptoSlate.

Each token is backed by one gram of physical gold held by DBS in a dedicated vault in Singapore.

MAS found deficiencies in Bsquared’s risk management and conflict-of-interest policies, and that the firm had provided false or misleading information to the regulator on multiple occasions. Singapore’s central bank has pulled the crypto payment license of Bsquared Technology Pte. Ltd., stripping the firm of its right to provide digital payment token services after uncovering a series of breaches. In a Wednesday announcement, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) said it revoked Bsquared’s Major Payment Institution Licence after an on-site inspection found weaknesses in the company’s risk management practices and conflict-of-interest policies, as well as failures to comply with the regulator’s outsourcing guidelines. MAS said Bsquared provided false or misleading information on multiple occasions, from its initial license application through the inspection itself. Read more

OpenAI is opening its first overseas applied AI lab in Singapore through a $234 million partnership expected to create more than 200 technical roles. OpenAI is opening its first applied AI lab outside the US in Singapore through a multiyear partnership with the Ministry of Digital Development and Information, backed by more than $234 million. The AI company said Tuesday that the new lab will add more than 200 technical roles over the next few years, making Singapore one of OpenAI’s global hubs for Forward Deployed Engineers (FDE), or technical specialists who work directly with organizations to implement AI systems. “Through OpenAI for Singapore, we want to help more organisations benefit from frontier AI, support the next generation of local AI talent, and widen access to these tools across the country,” Denise Dresser, the company's chief revenue officer, said. Read more

Approximately 49,000 workers were laid off in 2026 as companies adopted a more AI-reliant business model. Meta has reportedly begun cutting staff in Singapore as the company executes a plan to reduce employee numbers by 8,000 to lean more heavily on AI.  Emails were sent out at 4 a.m. Singapore time to affected employees, and staff in the US and Europe were also expected to be notified that morning, Bloomberg reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter. Meta’s engineering and product teams are expected to be hit hardest.  Meta is one of several Big Tech firms cutting staff while investing heavily in AI infrastructure in an effort to streamline operations and reduce costs. An estimated 49,135 layoffs have occurred at US companies in 2026 as a result of AI integration.  Read more

Singapore is embracing real world use cases for digital assets, not retail crypto speculation, says StraitX CEO Tianwei Liu.

A Singapore court ordered OneKey founder Wang Lei and an X user to stop threatening or defamatory claims tied to a dispute over the 2025 Resupply exploit. A Singapore court has ordered two crypto industry figures to stop making threatening or defamatory statements against a Curve-linked contributor following a dispute tied to a 2025 decentralized finance exploit. In a March 24 order seen by Cointelegraph, Singapore’s Protection from Harassment Court prohibited crypto wallet OneKey’s founder Wang Lei and the user behind the X account “web3feng” on X from posting statements alleging fraud or spreading false information about the claimant, identified in court documents as the pseudonymous Curve contributor known as “Haowi Wong” on X. The development follows online accusations that emerged after the June 2025 exploit of stablecoin protocol Resupply, which resulted in about $9.6 million in losses. Those accusations ended up in formal legal action being taken.  Read more

Ripple joins Singapore’s BLOOM cross-border trade finance sandbox scheme, Bhutan continues its massive Bitcoin sell off: Asia Express