Singapore’s MAS Says It Has No Data on Public Crypto Holdings

• MAS says it has no data on the public’s crypto holdings.
• The financial regulator has been tightening its rules on cryptocurrencies.
• Senior Minister believes Singapore will be a leading jurisdiction for crypto.

Singapore’s top financial regulator and central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has said that it is unable to ascertain statistics on the overall crypto assets owned by Singaporeans since these transactions include both Singapore-based and offshore service providers.

MAS was responding to a parliamentary question on the public’s exposure to digital payment token service providers in retail environments.

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Senior Minister and Chairman of MAS, said:

Data on the total cryptocurrency holdings of the Singapore public are not available, as these involve transactions with both Singapore-based and overseas service providers. It is therefore not possible to determine the proportion of cryptocurrency holdings that the public has obtained through MAS-licensed DPT service providers.

Shanmugaratnam also cautioned investors that, owing to the tremendous volatility of the crypto market, they face the risk of losing all the cash that they put in cryptocurrencies. Because of this, the Minister in charge of the central bank strongly advised the public to avoid investing in cryptocurrencies.

But, the MAS cautions against investing in cryptocurrencies shouldn’t come as a surprise since the financial regulator drastically strengthened its policies surrounding cryptocurrencies, this year.

Earlier this year, The failure of the digital asset hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), as well as the fall of the crypto project Terra, was one of the incidents that drove the MAS to strengthen the laws governing cryptocurrencies.

Shanmugaratnam is unwavering in his belief that Singapore would emerge as a leading jurisdiction for digital assets.