Singapore news-Page 2
Legal team for 3AC liquidators blast founders for shifting blame to FTX, media blitz amid bankruptcy
The founders of Three Arrows Capital, or 3AC, the Singapore-based crypto hedge fund with close ties to Terra Labs, have been spending more time engaging on social media and news outlets than dealing with its own liquidation, according to bankruptcy lawyers. In a Dec. 2 hearing in United States Bankruptcy Court in the Southern District of New York, lawyers for 3AC’s liquidators cited founders Zhu Su and Kylie Davies for being “active and responsive to comments via Twitter” but “repeatedly fail[ing] to engage” with liquidators to discuss the company’s assets and related issues. According to the legal team, Zhu and …
Regulation / Dec. 2, 2022
Thai VC fund acquires troubled exchange Zipmex for $100M: Report
After weeks of negotiations on a potential buyout of Zipmex, venture capital fund V Ventures has reportedly reached a deal to acquire the embattled cryptocurrency exchange. V Ventures, a subsidiary of Thoresen Thai Agencies (TTA) public company, is looking to purchase a 90% stake in Zipmex crypto exchange, Bloomberg reported on Dec. 2. The VC fund is about to acquire Zipmex for about $100 million in digital assets and cash, anonymous sources familiar with the matter claimed. Citing a court hearing on Friday in Singapore, the report says that Zipmex was offered $30 million in cash and the rest in …
Bitcoin / Dec. 2, 2022
Singapore’s Temasek sees ‘reputational damage’ due to FTX, official says
Singapore government-owned investment firm Temasek has suffered a lot more than just financial losses due to investing in FTX, according to Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong. Wong, who is also the finance minister, believes that Temasek’s $275 million investment in FTX has caused significant damage to the company’s reputation. The official addressed the growing criticism over Temasek’s FTX exposure at a parliament meeting on Nov. 27, according to a report by the South China Morning Post. The prime minister emphasized that the collapse of FTX was a result of a “very badly managed company” as well as possible fraud and …
Regulation / Nov. 30, 2022
FTX collapse put the Singapore government in a parliamentary hot seat
The collapse of now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has put the Singapore prime minister and the ruling government in a hot seat. Prime minister Lee Hsien Loong and deputy prime minister Lawrence Wong are set to face grilling questions for their failure to protect retail investors. The Members of Parliament (MP) from the opposition Workers’ party raised 15 questions about Temasek’s investment and FTX collapse. The MPs questioned the government’s credibility in tracking the extent of investments by Temasek and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. The discussions around the government policies while investing in digital assets will be scrutinized further in …
Blockchain / Nov. 28, 2022
Crypto lender Matrixport seeks $100M funding despite lending crisis
Matrixport, the cryptocurrency firm founded by Bitmain co-founder Wu Jihan, is in the process of raising $100 million funding despite the ongoing crypto market crisis. Lead investors have already committed $50 million for Matrixport’s new funding round at a $1.5 billion valuation, Bloomberg reported on Nov. 25. The deal has yet to be finalized as Matrixport is still looking for investors for the other half of the round. We're excited and look forward to engaging with participants, on similar terms, in the other half of the #funding round. Appreciate the trust and confidence our investors continue have in Team #Matrixport.@business …
Bitcoin / Nov. 25, 2022
Crypto lender Hodlnaut reportedly faces police investigation in Singapore
Singapore-based crypto lender Hodlnaut is reportedly facing a police probe over alleged offenses of cheating and fraud. According to reports published in local media, the police's commercial affairs department has launched an investigation into the founders of the exchange based on multiple complaints against the platform between August and November 2022. The Singapore police noted that the majority of complaints revolve around false representations and misinformation regarding the company’s exposure to a certain digital token. Police also advised investors impacted by the Hodlnaut crisis to file a complaint online and submit verifiable documents of their transaction histories on the platform. …
Blockchain / Nov. 24, 2022
Singapore central bank explains why Binance was on its alert list, but FTX wasn’t
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the country’s central bank, released a statement Nov. 21 to address “some questions and misconceptions that have arisen in the wake of the FTX.com (FTX) debacle.” The agency explained its The first point MAS wanted to make was that it could not protect local users from the fallout from FTX collapse “such as by ringfencing their assets or ensuring that FTX backed its assets with reserves” because “FTX is not licensed by MAS and operates offshore. MAS has consistently warned about the dangers of dealing with unregulated entities.” Yet it was Binance that ended …
Regulation / Nov. 22, 2022
Singapore police warn investors against FTX phishing scams: Report
The Singapore Police Force has warned investors to be weary of fake websites claiming they can help them recover funds from the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX. On Nov. 19, the police issued a warning about a website claiming to be hosted by the United States Department of Justice that prompts FTX users to log in with their account credentials, local news agency Channel News Asia reported. The website, which was not identified, targets local investors affected by the FTX collapse, claiming that customers “would be able to withdraw their funds after paying legal fees.” The police said the website was …
Regulation / Nov. 19, 2022
No red flags at FTX despite 8 months of 'extensive due diligence' — Temasek
Singapore's state-owned investment firm Temasek revealed despite eight months of due diligence in 2021, it didn't find any significant red flags in FTXs financials before deciding to invest $275 million into the now-bankrupt crypto exchange. Like many of FTX's more than one million creditors, the Singapore-based firm has been left blindsided by the collapse of FTX and the ongoing fallout, saying in a Nov. 17 post: "The thesis for our investment in FTX was to invest in a leading digital asset exchange providing us with protocol agnostic and market neutral exposure to crypto markets with a fee income model and …
Altcoin / Nov. 17, 2022
New York Fed collaborates with Singapore MAS to explore CBDCs
The Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s New York Innovation Center (NYIC) and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will launch a joint experiment with wholesale central bank digital currencies (wCBDCs). Regulators are keen to test the wCBDCs potential for cross-border wholesale payments. On Nov. 11, the MAS announced the launch of Project Cedar Phase II x Ubin+. In its framework, NYIC and MAS will leverage wCBDCs as a settlement asset in cross-border cross-currency transactions. The aim is to assess the possible ability of wCBDC to reduce settlement risk. Leong Sing Chiong, Deputy Managing Director at MAS, highlighted the concept …
Adoption / Nov. 11, 2022
Singapore's Temasek engages with FTX in liquidity crisis
Singapore’s state-owned investment firm Temasek, a shareholder at FTX, is reportedly engaging with the cryptocurrency exchange in the liquidity crisis that led to its unexpected (and still pending) bail out on Nov 8. In comments to Reuters, the sovereign wealth fund said it was "aware of the developments between FTX and Binance, and are engaging FTX in our capacity as shareholder," avoiding providing further details about the case impacts on its portfolio. Temasek invested in a series of FTX's round findings that led to the exchange's $32 billion valuation in January. Ten months later, the Singaporean firm is taking part …
Altcoin / Nov. 9, 2022
JP Morgan executes first DeFi trade on public blockchain
Multinational banking firm JP Morgan has successfully executed its first ever cross-border transaction using decentralized finance (DeFi) on a public blockchain. The trade was facilitated by the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) Project Guardian on Nov. 2 — which was established as part of a pilot program to “explore potential decentralized finance (DeFi) applications in wholesale funding markets.” In other words, the pilot was another step into examining how traditional financial institutions can use tokenized assets and DeFi protocols to conduct financial transactions, among other use cases. Singapore’s largest bank — DBS Bank, Tokyo-based banking firm SBI Digital Asset Holdings …
Adoption / Nov. 3, 2022