Many Cryptocurrency companies in Asia today are looking for a more favourable environment for business development, with the hope of glancing in the direction of Singapore.

But the city-state are not yet clearly outlined their positions on cryptocurrencies. The Central Bank of Singapore (Mas) is currently studying the risks associated with the cryptocurrency trade, but sees no reason for its ban.

As stated by the Head of the Central Bank (MAS) and Deputy Prime Minister of Singapore Tharman Shanmugaratnam, cryptocurrency is an experiment, they are still in the early stage of its development and susceptible to volatility. Take time to understand whether the experiment was successful.

Mr Shanmugaratnam stressed that financial regulators will monitor compliance with the rules of cryptocurrency trading in order to prevent money laundering and other potential risks. The head of the MAS also noted that the Central Bank will apply the existing legal requirements to those involved in trading cryptocurrency as intermediaries.

“Today there are two basic ways of using the cryptocurrency. First – in payment. The second, more common – as assets,” – said Deputy Prime Minister. “In both cases, the underlying technology — in the form of a blockchain or distributed registry may be useful to facilitate trade settlement and payments. However, the cryptocurrency space is changing rapidly and regulators are trying to choose the right position and to develop a legal framework, including in the US, UK and Europe.”

Mr. Shanmugaratnam noted that the use of cryptocurrency as means of payment in Singapore is limited and trading volumes are much smaller than in countries such as Japan and South Korea. He added:

“At the moment the nature and extent of cryptocurrency trading in Singapore does not create a risk to the security and integrity of our financial system”

Regional pressure

Last year China banned the ISO, and the largest cryptocurrency exchanges – Huobi, Okcoin and BTCC – moved to Hong Kong, with future plans of moving to South Korea and Japan.

South Korea, which is cooperating with China and Japan in the field of cryptocurrency regulations, has taken steps to end anonymous cryptocurrency trading. Korean regulators had targeted the leading commercial banks, trying to prevent further opening of virtual accounts for the clients of the cryptocurrency exchanges.

The government of Vietnam has accelerated the adoption of cryptocurrency regulation. Thailand is taking steps to regulate the ISO. The Central Bank of Indonesia is configured categorically against the use of cryptocurrencies. Businesses accepting Bitcoin as a means of payment, has suffered from government repression.

The government of Singapore can take advantage of the situation, and then to the city-state will open a lot of opportunities. We just need to keep a promise and letting the “experiment” will come to life.

The post Singapore authorities see no reason for strict regulation of the cryptocurrency appeared first on FineCrypto.