Ripple has scored a triumph in the island nation of Singapore, securing a preliminary nod from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) for a Major Payments Institution License.
This green signal is set to catapult Ripple's Singapore branch into the digital token stratosphere, enabling it to offer a suite of regulated services and products. Moreover, it promises to turbocharge Ripple’s On-Demand Liquidity (ODL) platform, which harnesses the power of crypto and has seen an exponential growth trajectory in Singapore.
Ripple's legal virtuoso, Stu Alderoty, showered praise on Singapore’s progressive stance on digital asset regulations. He highlighted that Singapore has elegantly woven a comprehensive regulatory tapestry for digital assets, achieving a perfect equilibrium between safeguarding consumers and maintaining market integrity, while simultaneously fuelling the fires of innovation and capital infusion.
In a show of confidence, Ripple's Singapore fortress has been on a hiring frenzy, swelling its ranks by 50% in just one year. Now, 50 dedicated professionals form the backbone of its operations across a spectrum of areas, ranging from business development and compliance to finance, legal, and sales, marking Ripple’s aggressive gambit in the nation.
Alderoty credits Ripple’s Singapore surge to the nascent but booming digital asset landscape that beckons responsible and visionary players. With the license, Ripple rubs shoulders with other prestigious players in the space such as Coinbase and Circle.
MAS, Singapore's financial watchdog, has thus far crowned 190 entities with Major Payment Institution licenses and another 11 with Digital Payment Token Service licenses. Since the dawn of 2020, MAS’s coffers have been flooded with over 680 applications, but not all found favor with the authority. Notably, Binance had to tuck tail and retract its application for a Digital Payments Token license in December 2021.
