Singapore’s central bank and financial regulatory authority has warned eight digital currency exchanges in the country not to allow the trading of tokens without its consent.
In addition to the eight cryptocurrency exchanges, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) also issued a warning to an initial coin offering (ICO) issuer to stop providing its digital tokens in the country; however, it didn’t identify which one this was, reports The Strait Times.
According to the report, cryptocurrency tokens that are deemed as securities or futures contracts means that digital currency exchanges must cease trading them until they have received the appropriate approval from MAS.
Regarding the ICO issuer, the report stated:
“MAS has assessed that the issuer had contravened the Securities and Futures Act (SFA) as its tokens represented equity ownership in a company and therefore would be considered as securities under the SFA.”
In a bid to comply with Singapore’s central bank, the issuer has reportedly stopped trading and has returned all funds received from Singapore-based investors.
Lee Boon Ngiap, assistant managing director (capital markets) at MAS, said in a statement that:
“The number of digital token exchanges and digital token offerings in Singapore has been increasing. We do not see a need to restrict them if they are bona fide businesses. But if any digital token exchange, issuer or intermediary breaches our securities laws, MAS will take firm action. The public should be aware that there is no regulatory safeguard if they choose to trade on unregulated digital token exchanges or invest in digital tokens that fall outside the remit of MAS’ rules.”
With interest in the market continuing knowing what is a safe and secure platform to invest money into is not always as easy as it may seem. In a bid to highlight the issues that would-be investors potentially face, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) launched a bogus ICO website earlier this month. The intention is to educate investors on the risks that ICOs can present.
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