Singapore MAS Issues Guidelines Regarding Promotion of Crypto Services

By Kevin • January 17, 2022 1:47 pm • Comments

Singapore is a country that is quite popular for people and firms that are involved in the blockchain or crypto industry due to its welcoming regulatory laws and environment.

Many firms, as a result, have chosen to relocate to Singapore to conduct business as well as to avoid taxes.

Recently, the island nation of Singapore has recently issued new guidelines to help limit the amount of promotions of services that involve crypto services.

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The reason for this comes from the city-nation’s authorities which are concerned that marketing these services to the general public could be risky as they are generally not as knowledgeable and could therefore create volatile price swings.

Arabnews.com reports:

The Monetary Authority of Singapore issued on Monday guidelines restricting cryptocurrency trading service providers from promoting their services to the general public, as part of an effort to protect retail investors from potential risks.

In the new guidelines, MAS asserts that companies should not engage in marketing or advertising of DPT services in public areas in Singapore or through third parties, such as social media influencers, to promote DPT services to the general public.

They can only market or advertise on their own corporate websites, mobile applications or official social media accounts.

As a result, the guidelines that are being issued is that these advertising promotions can only be limited to specific websites or corporate accounts where the audience is much more specialized.

With that being said, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) is still being clear that they do encourage the development blockchain technology and cryptocurrency, but only in use cases where they see that could benefit the country.

As of right now, businesses that are involved in crypto or blockchain must have a DPT (digital payment token) license which provides them the right to conduct business.

Currently, MAS has reported that it has received around 180 of these applications, but have declined to share the specific amount of licenses that were approved.

MAS has released on official statement on the release of these guidelines recently on their government website.

The MAS government website goes into further detail:

MAS has consistently warned that trading DPTs is highly risky and not suitable for the general public, as the prices of DPTs are subject to sharp speculative swings.

MAS has observed that some DPT service providers have been actively promoting their services through online and physical advertisements or through the provision of physical automated teller machines (ATM) in public areas.

This could encourage consumers to trade DPTs on impulse, without fully understanding the attendant risks.

The new guidelines clarify MAS’ expectations that DPT service providers should not engage in marketing or advertising of DPT services:

  • in public areas in Singapore such as through advertisements on public transport, public transport venues, public websites, social media platforms, broadcast and print media, or provision of physical ATMs; or

  • through the engagement of third parties, such as social media influencers, to promote DPT services to the general public in Singapore.

These recent guidelines and regulations emerging from Singapore may be indicative of a sign that as the industry matures, regulations and guidelines will continue to catch up.

Singapore is one of the nations early to respond to the recent technology advancements in the space and it is expected that other countries around the world will follow suit.

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