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Coinbase’s Singapore branch has received “approval” to provide cryptocurrency services from the country’s Central Bank and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
Hassan Ahmed, CEO of Coinbase Singapore and the exchange’s Southeast Asia director said Singapore is an important market for exchanges in Asia due to the widespread interest and exposure to cryptocurrencies by businesses.
Singapore also serves as Coinbase’s Asia-Pacific technology hub, with an on-site engineering team responsible for international expansion research and platform localization, Ahmed said.
Coinbase already offers services under the exemption granted by MAS, but Ahmed said it will seek to partner with local platforms with new approval to offer digital payment token services.
The exchange said it is partnering with local Web3 community groups such as the Singapore Association of Crypto Businesses and Startups (ACCESS) and the Singapore Fintech Association (SFA) and local industry in Singapore to ensure fair legislation from regulators and suppliers provide information to nonprofits.
“We partner with industry associations to foster dialogue with policymakers and ensure regulations and a realistic approach to the regulatory framework for digital assets,” Ahmed adds:
“In terms of jobs, cryptocurrencies are an exciting but hard-to-reach industry, so we’re working with nonprofits on career exploration like advisory.sg to provide guidance to their members.”
Coinbase has been interested in expanding across the Asia-Pacific region, with a local institution in Japan since August 2021, and expanding on October 5 to retail-focused offerings in Australia.
Ahmed said of Coinbase’s plans to offer the service across Southeast Asia:
“We see Southeast Asia as a crypto transitional region with a lot of demand for holding and using cryptocurrencies in markets like the Philippines and Indonesia. This is also a hotbed of innovation for trends such as Web3 gaming such as Vietnam.”
Coinbase’s vice president of business and international development Nana Murugesan has previously said that the exchange will focus “more on markets with clear [regulation]” as it plans to expand further into Asia.
