Singapore’s central bank is drawing a firmer line between digital assets built for speculation and those that could make financial markets work better, as global crypto exchange Coinbase expands its footprint in the city-state.
Speaking at the opening of Coinbase’s new Singapore office, Kenneth Gay, Chief Fintech Officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), said the digital asset industry has moved beyond the early public debate around cryptocurrencies and trading. The more important question now, he suggested, is whether tokenisation and digital money can solve practical problems in finance without weakening trust, resilience, market integrity, or consumer protection.
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That distinction matters in Southeast Asia, where cross-border payments remain costly and slow, capital markets are fragmented, and businesses often operate across multiple currencies and regulatory regimes. For years, the region’s crypto boom was associated mainly with retail trading, volatile tokens, and collapses that hurt ordinary users. MAS’s latest framing points to a different phase: one focused less on hype and more on settlement, compliance, liquidity, and institutional infrastructure.
Gay said the ecosystem is becoming “more diverse and more differentiated”, with use cases emerging across tokenised financial assets, payments, custody, compliance, settlement, and market infrastructure. Some tokens, he noted, are designed largely for speculation. Others are tied to real financial assets, commercial bank money, or central bank payment instruments.
The implication is clear: MAS is not treating all digital assets the same way. It wants to support the parts of the market that may improve how finance operates, while maintaining close oversight of activities that create risk without obvious economic value.
From crypto trading to financial plumbing
The most promising developments, according to Gay, are those that address long-standing frictions in the financial system. Tokenisation — the process of representing assets such as bonds, funds, deposits, or collateral on digital ledgers — is often marketed as a breakthrough in itself. MAS’s view is more restrained: the value is not in turning an asset into a token, but in whether doing so improves how that asset is issued, transferred, pledged, settled, or managed.
In practical terms, tokenised assets could reduce the time institutions spend reconciling records, improve post-trade processes, and make settlement more predictable. This is especially relevant in Asia, where capital and trade flows frequently move across time zones, jurisdictions, and currencies. A company operating between Singapore, Indonesia, Vietnam, and the Philippines may face different banking rails, settlement cycles, and compliance requirements in each market.
But MAS is also warning that tokenised assets cannot scale in isolation. Faster-moving assets require settlement money that can move just as safely and reliably. Without credible settlement assets, trusted infrastructure, legal certainty, and operational controls, tokenisation risks becoming another layer of complexity rather than a solution.
That is why digital money has become central to Singapore’s digital asset strategy. Gay pointed to three forms now under active development: well-regulated stablecoins, tokenised deposits, and central bank digital currencies, particularly wholesale CBDCs used between financial institutions.
Each serves a different purpose. Properly backed stablecoins, if governed by strong safeguards, could become settlement assets or mediums of exchange. Tokenised deposits could allow banks to bring commercial bank money into digital environments. Wholesale CBDCs could provide a credit risk-free settlement asset for financial institutions.
The future, in MAS’s view, will not be built around a single ledger or one form of digital money. Instead, multiple digital assets, payment instruments, and ledgers are likely to coexist. The policy challenge is to make sure they are interoperable, safe, and aligned with financial regulation.
What BLOOM is trying to solve
To push that agenda, MAS has established BLOOM, short for Borderless, Liquid, Open, Online, Multi-currency. The initiative is designed to support multi-currency settlement capabilities and bring together banks, payment service providers, architects, and other industry participants to work on practical use cases for digital money and settlement assets.
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Gay described BLOOM as being about “making digital money useful for real settlement needs across borders and currencies”. That phrasing captures the bigger shift in Singapore’s approach. The goal is not to encourage experiments for their own sake, but to help projects move from pilots to commercially meaningful deployment.
For Southeast Asia, this focus is important. The region has no shortage of fintech pilots, blockchain proofs of concept, and bank-led experiments. What it lacks, in many cases, is the connective tissue that allows regulated institutions to deploy such systems at scale across markets.
Interoperability, liquidity management, and programmable compliance — the ability to embed compliance rules into transactions — are not glamorous topics, but they determine whether digital asset infrastructure can move into production.
MAS said BLOOM is intended to give participants regulatory clarity, partnerships, and ecosystem connectivity to scale and launch in Singapore. The regulator also expects to learn from these projects, using real-world experience to shape future policy and rules.
Coinbase’s involvement in BLOOM places it within this institutional push. Gay thanked the company for its active participation and said firms such as Coinbase are building capabilities, launching product offerings, and creating jobs in Singapore.
Coinbase in a crowded regional race
Coinbase’s Singapore expansion comes as major global exchanges compete for regulatory legitimacy in Asia. The company holds a Major Payment Institution licence from MAS, allowing it to provide digital payment token services in Singapore. Its regional rivals include Crypto.com, Independent Reserve, and Blockchain.com, which have also received MAS licences, while global names such as OKX, Kraken, Gemini, and Binance compete for institutional and retail users across different markets, subject to local rules.
The competitive landscape has changed since the peak of the crypto bull market. Exchanges can no longer rely solely on retail trading volumes or brand recognition. In Singapore, the more valuable prize may be integration into regulated financial infrastructure — custody, settlement, tokenised assets, and stablecoin-based services that appeal to institutions rather than speculative traders.
This is also where MAS’s regulatory posture gives Singapore an edge. The city-state has tightened rules around retail access and consumer protection, while continuing to support institutional experimentation through projects involving tokenisation, wholesale settlement, and digital money. That balance has made Singapore one of the more important hubs for digital asset companies seeking credibility in Asia, even as other centres such as Hong Kong, Dubai, and Tokyo compete aggressively for the same sector.
The next test: moving beyond pilots
The speech underscored a familiar but unresolved challenge for digital assets: turning technical possibility into everyday financial utility. Faster settlement, better liquidity, and programmable compliance are valuable only if institutions trust the systems, regulators understand the risks, and customers are protected when things go wrong.
For founders and fintech operators in Southeast Asia, MAS’s message is both an opportunity and a constraint. The regulator is open to digital asset innovation, but only where it is tied to clear economic value and strong safeguards. Projects built mainly around speculation will face a colder reception than those improving settlement, treasury operations, compliance, or cross-border liquidity.
Also Read: Tokenised assets have moved on-chain. The liquidity has not followed
That may define the next phase of Singapore’s digital asset market. The city is not trying to be the loosest jurisdiction for crypto activity. It is trying to become the place where regulated digital asset infrastructure can be tested, supervised, and eventually deployed.
Coinbase’s new office gives the company a larger base in that ecosystem. BLOOM gives MAS another channel to shape how digital money develops. Whether either can help digital assets move from controlled pilots to real financial plumbing will be the test that matters.
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