Binance is applying for a license to once more provide cryptocurrency services in Singapore with a renewed focus on institutional clients.
Binance, the biggest cryptocurrency exchange in the world reportedly intends to have Ceffu, its custodial division, submit an application for a license to offer professional investors custodial and other digital asset services.
The spinoff served customers looking for custodial and digital asset services when it was started in November 2021.2020 saw Binance removing retail investors from its Singapore platform in response to demands from the regional financial authority.
Since then, the business has provided services to the city-institutional state’s clients. Singapore is a desirable place for institutional investors because of its reputation for innovation, high corporate governance, and robust regulatory environment.
In order to better safeguard consumers’ interests in the cryptocurrency industry, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) released plans in October 2022 to expand its purview.
Observers predict that it will be months before any new regulations in Singapore’s consumer-focused regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies are put into effect.
The framework forbids businesses from lending retail customers’ digital currency to other businesses and requires that client assets be held apart from business assets.
The regulator has also suggested banning the use of credit cards to buy cryptocurrencies, and companies that deal in digital assets may need to give assessments to retail investors before they can trade virtual tokens.
Binance offered the MAS input on the regulator’s suggestions for improved consumer protection and suggested a few adjustments. Binance put up a calibrated strategy to safeguard users from the dangers of unrestricted leverage in response to the suggestion of prohibiting players from lending out digital currencies owned by retail customers.
Concerns have been raised regarding Singapore’s capacity to continue to be a desirable place for digital assets in light of the increasing scrutiny at a time when other centres, such as Hong Kong, are luring investment.
Notwithstanding the difficulties, Ceffu’s persistence in securing a license in a more onerous regulatory environment suggests that Binance values even a modest commercial presence in the Southeast Asian nation through its institutional business.
The action is being taken at a time when Binance is coming under closer scrutiny from authorities all over the world, notably in the US, where Binance.US, its local corporation, is running into objections from watchdogs over a plan to buy the assets of insolvent crypto lender Voyager Digital.
