Coinbase secures in-principle approval as Major Payments Institution licence holder in Singapore
Coinbase has received an In-Principle Approval (IPA) as a Major Payments Institution licence holder from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
This licence will allow the company to offer regulated Digital Payment Token products and services in the island state.
Coinbase commented:
“Singapore has a long history of embracing innovation, and positioning itself at the forefront of the financial and technological revolution. We look forward to ongoing collaboration with the government on a pragmatic regulatory framework for digital assets, to empowering local and regional builders as they scale use cases, and to continue supporting efforts to consolidate the island state’s position as a global Web3 hub”.
For some time now, Coinbase has been increasing its presence in the Lion City. Last year it announced Singapore as a tech hub for Coinbase; it has since continued to hire and train product managers and engineers on Web3 technologies. The team leading its venture arm, Coinbase Ventures, has invested in over fifteen Singapore-based Web3 startups in the past three years, they have also established a team in the island city to drive investment activity in the Asia-Pacific region.
Singapore serves as the hub for Coinbase’s APAC institutional business. As the top financial centre in Asia, and the third in the world, after New York and London, Singapore is a regional, or in some cases a global hub, for a large number of banks, asset managers, hedge funds, insurance companies, commodity trading firms, corporates, and HNWIs, all of whom have been showing increasing interest to invest directly in digital assets.