SINGAPORE - Singapore-based cryptocurrency exchange, Crypto.com, says it has been granted a major payment institution licence for digital payment token (DPT) services from authorities here.
With the licence, the firm can continue to extend its DPT services to customers in Singapore, including e-money issuance, account issuance, cross border and domestic money transfers, the exchange said in a release on Thursday.
This comes a year after the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) handed out an in-principle approval to the firm.
The firm’s chief executive Kris Marszalek noted that MAS is recognised globally as a regulator that ensures responsible innovation of the digital assets sector and the exchange looks forward to more collaboration.
Mr Ang Chin Tah, the firm’s Singapore general manager, said Singapore continues to be a hub for blockchain and fintech innovation and the “licence underscores our ongoing commitment to build with the Web3 community in Singapore”.
Crypto.com was founded in 2016 by Mr Bobby Bao, Mr Gary Or, Mr Marszalek, and Mr Rafael Melo.
Following last year’s crypto crashes, including the fall of prominent exchange FTX, activity has been muted this year. The ongoing market rout has triggered a wave of bankruptcies, layoffs and company failures across the globe.
In January, Crypto.com announced that it would reduce its global workforce by about 20 per cent amid industrywide challenges brought on by FTX’s collapse.
The layoffs at the firm would be the second round in about six months, after the exchange cut 260 jobs in July last year to weather the macroeconomic downturn amid rising interest rates.
