According to a May 31 report by The Register, Deputy Prime Minister Keat spoke at the Asia Tech x Singapore (ATxSG) event, Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister, acknowledged the potential influence of blockchain and digital currencies on the banking industry. The deputy prime minister stated that greater regulation will be required for the sector as a whole to stimulate innovation while mitigating risks.
Keat stated:
“We are still eager to work with blockchain and develop trust.”
Singapore’s tenfold increase in crypto investments of USD 1.48 billion in 2021, up from USD110 million in 2020. According to Coincub research, Singapore was among the top five most crypto-friendly countries in the world in Q1 2022.
A Collaborative venture with financial sector, MAS
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced the start of Project Guardian, a collaborative venture with the financial sector that intends to examine the economic possibilities and value-adding use applications of asset tokenization, on the first day of ATxSG 2022.
According to the news announcement, Project Guardian will investigate the viability of applications in asset tokenization and DeFi alongside mitigating threats to economic stability and integrity.
Project Guardian’s initial industrial pilot will look into possible DeFi uses in wholesale finance markets. According to the news report, the pilot, led by DBS Bank Ltd., JP Morgan, and Marketnode, includes the production of a permissioned liquidity pool of tokenised securities and deposits. This pilot seeks to bring out protected borrowing and lending on a public blockchain-based system via smart contract execution.”
The MAS has previously cautioned against crypto trading. In January 2022, it took measures to ban the advertising of digital assets. Singapore enacted the Financial Services and Markets Bill 2022 in April.
