Singapore Monetary Authority Decides Against Banning Bitcoin

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In response to a series of questions presented by the parliament Tuesday 30th, Singapore’s deputy prime minister Tharman Shanmugaratnam in charge of the Monetary Authority of Singapore responded about “the banning of cryptocurrency trading” in the country.

According to the report released on the Singaporean Monetary Authority website, some of the questions were made in concern of China’s and South Korea’s bans, while others just addressed how a “collapse in the cryptocurrency market” could affect the country and what measures the minister would take regarding that event, considering regulation and education measurements, to which the minister responded that there is no systemic risk related to it that could significantly affect the country’s economy.

In the second of the fourteen statements released by Shanmugaratnam, the second includes, direct quote, “there is no strong case to ban cryptocurrency trading here.” In addition to that, the fourth statement also states that the blockchain and distributed ledger technologies are important for the country as they “prove to have potentially useful applications in facilitating payments and trade settlements”. They also mention their already enforced anti-money laundering and anti-terrorism measures, performed by their Suspicious Transaction Reporting Office.

As Singapore maintains their position of leadership in both cryptocurrency investment and distributed ledger technology development, with the country-based Qtum launching the first blockchain node into space the minister’s announcements made the scenario smoother amid the prolific market of the country and its region and the harsh regulatory situation of some of its neighbors, following the path of Japan in contrast to China.

This comes less than a month after the Singaporean Central Bank head pinned his hopes on cryptocurrencies at a UBS Wealth Insights held in the country, amongst concerns that a potential crash would affect the ongoing blockchain-based technology development, and asserted the city-state role as a hub for fintech companies.