SBI Holdings announced funding Singaporean crypto exchange Coinhako
SBI Holdings, Tokyo’s financial services giant firm, has announced a joint investment in Coinhako, the first licensed Singaporean crypto exchange that has been approved by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
According to news reports, the latest Coinhako investment has been made via a fund that was jointly set up by SBI and Switzerland’s Sygnum Bank, namely, the SBI-Sygnum-Azimut Digital Asset Opportunity Fund.
An MAS spokesperson has highlighted the importance of seeking licensing approvals for crypto firms, suggesting that the MAS’ approach to the regulatory framework under its Payment Services Act “seeks to facilitate innovation” while simultaneously ensuring that adequate controls are put in place for addressing key risks like money laundering and terrorism financing.
Coinhako has become the first crypto-asset exchange in Singapore that secured an in-principle approval from MAS for legally conducting Digital Payment Token services, the same license application that the cryptocurrency exchange firm, Binance, had withdrawn on Monday, December 13.
The MAS spokesperson, concerning Binance’s withdrawal has said that all applicants are free to withdraw their applications “should they see fit.”
The MAS representative said applications can be withdrawn upon that, those who are operating under the exemption would be then required to cease providing regulated payment services. Binance Asia Services, he said, has provided the MAS with a plan for the orderly cessation of its regulated payment services.
With SBI’s current fund infusion and a pre-existing global network, Coinhako has planned to expand their businesses to other countries in theSoutheast Asia region while it remaining based in Singapore.
According to SBI, the fund would be co-managed by both parties involved, with a special focus on financial market infrastructure and distributed ledger technology.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore has suspended the license of Bitget after the digital asset space had listed a K-pop-related cryptocurrency, Army Coin (ARMY).
The subsequent listing and promotion of ARMY coin had reportedly violated the boy band’s intellectual property rights. As an offensive, the crypto exchange went so far as to claim that they have licenses in other jurisdictions, including Australia, Canada and the United States.
The firm had also announced that they are “currently looking into the legal violations” in the case, including the cryptocurrency’s infringement on the artists’ portrait rights without permission from or any specific discussion with the agency.
It had said that they would “take legal action against all infringements and violations.”
