Singapore will clamp down on bad behaviour in crypto market 

Singapore’s regulators will crack down on bad behaviour in the crypto industry, the chief fintech officer of the country’s central bank has warned. 

Sopnendu Mohanty at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) questioned the need to be friendly to the crypto industry.

“We have no tolerance for any market bad behaviour. If somebody has done a bad thing, we are brutal and unrelentingly hard,” he said in an interview with the Financial Times published today.

“I think the world at large is lost . . . in private currency, which is causing all this market turmoil,” Mohanty said, referring to the recent crypto market crash that has seen the prices of major cryptocurrencies plummeting.

Mohanty said Singapore has implemented a “painfully slow” and “extremely draconian due diligence process” for licensing crypto businesses, with very few approved.

“We have been called out by many cryptocurrencies for not being friendly,” he said. “My response has been: friendly for what? Friendly for a real economy or friendly for some unreal economy?”

While critical of private cryptocurrencies, Mohanty anticipated a state-backed token to be launched in Singapore within three years. 

MAS co-launched a “centre of excellence” in Singapore this week to develop a central bank digital currency, or CBDC.