Webinar | The Rise of Singapore as a leading Commonwealth Cryptocurrency Hub with Chris Holland

Singapore has been dubbed the “natural home” of cryptocurrency in Asia, being amongst the first countries in Southeast Asia, along with fellow Commonwealth member state Malaysia, to adopt the digital currency. By mid-2021, Singaporean citizens had the sixth-highest rate of cryptocurrency adoption according to statistics by Finder.com with 15.6% of the surveyed adults owning cryptocurrencies. Whilst the top choice was BitCoin owned by 66.7% of the sample (3rd highest globally), 52.4 also said they owned Ethereum which translated to roughly 8.2% of the Singaporean adult population, the highest percentage globally. (Nearing the end of 2021 during the time when both BitCoin and Ethereum saw immense growth, 100% and 300% respectively, Singapore was named the most crypto-friendly country in the world by the international crypto rating company- Coincub- due to its “robust economy, positive legislative environment, and high rate of cryptocurrency adoption”. Singapore remains the most popular jurisdiction for Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs).

Singapore’s rising image as the crypto hub has been marred with doubt, however, at the start of the year 2022 with the release of the MAS’ “Guidelines on the Provision of Digital Payment Tokens”. Under these new guidelines, retail activity in cryptocurrency is being heavily curtailed and regulated; cryptocurrency service providers are being restricted from marketing their services to the general public and the regulatory authorities are now very selective in their approach to regulating cryptocurrency opting to make crypto products and services accessible to financial institutions before retail investors and are far more lenient in terms of license issuance to the former rather than the latter. Consequently, many assume that Singapore is redacting its objective of becoming a global crypto while say that the development is actually in line with Singapore’s cautious but progressive approach to the crypto space, arguing that Singapore is taking its time to implement well thought out and protective policies that ensure that the citizens do not invest in high-risk endeavors.

In this webinar, the Commonwealth Chamber of Commerce is joined by Chris Holland, Partner of the Singapore-based full-service compliance consultancy firm, Holland & Marie, to discuss in detail the historical context and rationale behind Singapore’s policy frameworks towards navigating the regulation and gradual adoption of cryptocurrency as well as the future trajectory of Singapore as the leading Commonwealth nation in the field of decentralized digital currency.

#CommonwealthChamber #CommonwealthConnect #Cryptocurrency #DigitalTokens #Singapore #ICOs #NFTs #MonetaryAuthoritySingapore #PaymentServicesAct #CommonwealthCrypto #HollandMarie #ChrisHolland #Ethereum #BitCoin

Timecodes:
00:00 Julia Charlton's welcome speech
03:04 Chris Holland about Singapore as a leading Commonwealth Crypto Finance Hub
28:06 Chris Holland about Green Shoots seminar
29:40 Chris Holland about difficulty to get bank accounts

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