FT Cryptofinance: Teaching from Singapore

Welcome to the FT Cryptofinance newsletter. This week we ask the question of whether Singapore's approach to regulate the industry can be drawn.

On the whole, there were two approaches when it comes to regulating crypto.

Some countries quickly stepped into action and tried to turn into a "crypto hub". Usually driven by politicians, driven by the fear of missing the alleged future of finances. Others were more careful and feared weakening the regulatory standards. Singapore fell into the first camp; the EU the second.

those jurisdiction that try to claim the early mover advantage-who may have looked at Singapore with envy-should perhaps take a break.

This week, the city state effectively carried out an infelegant maneuver and proposed a number of new regulations to aim to strengthen the access of jurisdiction to bad crypto behavior.

The original plan was to use Singapore's reputation as a stable, technology -friendly and educated country with an attractive tax environment. But that was recently clouded by a number of top -class controversy.

On Wednesday, the Monetary Authority of Singapore published two consultation papers. My colleague Mercedes Ruehl and I wrote about it here. Mas said:

"Several cases of misconduct were reported by international media, including cases in which legal proceedings against companies were initiated that did not have sufficiently robust business practices," it said.

you can say loudly. In the past few months alone, the disappearance of do Kwon and the breakdowns on Three Arrows Capital and Hodlnaut Singapore Singapore Singapore have undermined crypto approach, and now the supervisory authority of the city state seems to have noticed this.

Already in June the Chief Fintech officer said that Sopnendu Mohanty, Singapore would be "brutally and relentlessly hard" against bad crypto behavior. In order to propose stricter consumer protection laws - according to the consumers they are supposed to protect, some of the worst mistakes in the history of the crypto industry were simply not to me to be behavior that complies with such a promise.

"This extraordinary Game of Thrones A similar struggle for the crypto center is absurd," said the former head of the Office of Internet Enforcement at SEC, John Reed Stark. "While the goal is admirable.

A city -state that was once referred to by the industry giant Binance as "cryptoparadies" no longer leads to the front, but looks at what Europe did.

deeply buried in the MAS suggestions, "encouraged" the supervisory authority to introduce digital payment stalks trading platforms, "good industry practices" in order to uncover and prevent unfair trade-things such as market manipulation, misleading behavior and insider trade.

This is remarkably similar to parts of the long-discussed, now upcoming regulation of the markets for crypto-assets in Europe. In fact, the MAS recognized the guilt and said: "These practices are similar to regulatory proposals that were raised in other jurisdiction such as Hong Kong and the EU."

But what could ultimately be shown is that the EU's presentation of the EU becomes a global approach. After all, the EU is a regulatory power regardless of the industry. It is one of the largest markets in the world. The size is important. If it makes decisions, other jurisdiction becomes aware.

However,

remarkable of Mica was acceptance in the industry itself. Dante Dispafte, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Policy from Circle, said in summer, Mica offered a "way for Europe to develop into a competitive region for the safe, solid development of always available financial system".

In my opinion, the buy-in industry can be interpreted in two ways: that the crypto has successfully campaigned for rules that they like so that it can continue as she wants, or that these rules do not be as prescriptive, unexpected and paralyzed that people will look around elsewhere to expand their business.

This is the idea anyway; The question is whether Mica will achieve these goals if it is expected to come into force next year. But last but not least, the slower rapprochement rather prevents Singapore's awkward dance.

What do you think of Singapore's latest crypto movements? Send me an email to scott.chipolina@ft.com.

Weekly highlights

• Two years ago, banks faced the problem of capturing their most knowledgeable crypto people when the excitement and money were clearly found in the digital assets industry. Now the supervisory authorities in Washington are facing the same problem. Letters published by Punchbowl show that big names on the Capitol Hill like Elizabeth Warren and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez asked several US agencies why their talent repeatedly jumps into crypto.

• The US Ministry of Justice claimed that two Chinese citizens had paid more than $ 60,000 in Bitcoin to a US criminal prosecution officer to receive information about an investigation and law enforcement in connection with a Chinese company. Find out more about history here.

• The Bitcoin Mining platform Core Scientific frightened the industry after warning that she could register bankruptcy because she could go out the money by the end of the year. Industry observers have speculated whether flat Bitcoin prices and high energy costs would claim large players in the mining industry. Absolutely watch.

• Lisa Cameron, chair of the British Parliament's crypto group, has asked the recent Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, to create clarity about the commitment of the United Kingdom of Digital Properties. It is probably not at the top of Sunak's list of priorities, but you never know - he supported plans to make Great Britain a global technology center. Perhaps we will soon be hearing more about the government's non -funny token. For example what it should represent.

SoundBite of the week: Do you remember what WhatsApp failed? Krypto has the say

You probably noticed that WhatsApp failed this week.

Freed from the distractions from group chats, they may have thought that a failure underlines the risks to rely on a centralized service.

If so, they are not alone. Paolo Ardoinino, Chief Technology Officer at Bitfinex, offered a similar advice.

"Today's failure of WhatsApp underlines the inherent weaknesses of web2 applications that rely on a centralized third-party provider. Users not only trust applications such as WhatsApp, but also expose business-critical interactions to a risk."

Yes, this is a manager of a centralized crypto exchange that happened to suffer his own hack in 2016, which focused on several billion dollars at the beginning of this year after a suspected money laundering case.

data-mining

investment products for digital assets such as stock markets traded funds and debt bonds or closed investment funds that were founded as trusts have lost in popularity since air leaked out of the cryptoma market.

According to data from the data analysis platform Cryptocompare, the average daily overall product volume fell below $ 100 million this month. Apart from a late increase, it would be the worst month since June 2020, just when the Bull run would start.

The numbers are part of a more comprehensive story. Last year, when the popular cryptocurrency prices skyrocketed or, as the jargon says, "to the moon" went, prices were inspired by flattering stories about digital gold or the protection against inflation.

This year's crash has proven that these stories no longer make sense, and the result is much less excitement about crypto token.