Bitstamp awarded MPI license in Singapore
Singaporean regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), has awarded cryptocurrency exchange Bitstamp a Major Payment Institution (MPI) trading license.
Expanding into APAC
In a blog post published on July 3, Bitstamp proclaimed that it is “globally trusted & now licensed in Singapore.” The company described the acquisition of the license as a milestone that “marks the start of [its] expansion into the APAC region.”
It emerged in June 2024 that Bitstamp had been acquired by American trading platform Robinhood. The $200 million acquisition was finally completed last month. Bitstamp signaled last September that it planned to expand its institutional business across Australia and Asia. Earlier this year, parent company Robinhood outlined that it would use Bitstamp to crypto offerings in Singapore in 2025.
Acquiring licenses
At that time, Johann Kerbrat, vice-president and general manager of Robinhood Crypto, said that “part of the reason why Bitstamp was attractive was because of their licenses with Singapore, in addition to its institutional business.” This latest license award strengthens the company’s efforts in gaining more traction in Asia.
Licensing is all the more relevant given the recent actions of the Singaporean regulator. Last month, MAS set a June 30 deadline for unlicensed crypto firms operating out of the city-state and serving overseas customers to cease offering such services.
Over recent years, Singapore has been striving towards establishing itself as a global hub for crypto startups. It has been successful in that endeavor insofar as a whole host of international crypto businesses have established a presence there.
However, its recent move to curb unlicensed firms working out of Singapore in providing services internationally has been interpreted as a much more cautious approach being taken by the Singaporean authorities. The regulator clarified its concerns recently:
”MAS has set the bar high for licensing and will generally not issue a licence. The money laundering risks are higher in such business models and if their substantive regulated activity is outside of Singapore, MAS is unable to effectively supervise such persons. Without a licence, such DTSPs [Digital Token Service Providers] will have to cease their regulated activities.”
Caution in Singapore to benefit Hong Kong
Singapore has been competing with cities like Hong Kong to develop and maintain that crypto hub status. Some commentators have expressed the view that Hong Kong will benefit from this latest move in Singapore.
Joshua Chu, a lawyer who co-chairs the Hong Kong Web3 Association, told the South China Morning Post (SCMP) recently that “this is likely to attract quality projects [to Hong Kong] looking for a compliant, liquid, and globally connected base.”
In addition to licensing achieved in Asia, Bitstamp has acquired licensing in a number of European countries such as Italy, Spain, France and the Netherlands. Last month, Robinhood launched the trading of tokenized stocks and exchange-traded funds (ETFs) for users resident within the European Union (EU). It also revealed that it is in the process of building out a layer-2 network on top of the Arbitrum blockchain with a view towards using it to host tokenized real-world assets (RWAs).
