Singapore Cracks Down: Crypto Firms Must Shun Overseas Service by June 2025

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Crypto Chaos in Singapore: Firms Bossed into a Corner 🚧🔒

Well, look at that. Singapore, the shiny hub of innovation, suddenly decided to play tough guy. Starting June 30, 2025, local crypto companies are supposed to tell their overseas clients to take a hike—or face the music. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS)—that stern guy in the corner—wrote the rules after listening to all the fuss and feedback, probably while sipping strong coffee and thinking, “This will keep things tidy.”

Any firm, person, or partnership that’s registered in Singapore and trying to pass tokens around the world better get a license fast. If not, they’ll have to hit pause or shut down. Otherwise, they’re playing with fire, and MAS isn’t known for rapping softly.

License or Bust: No Exceptions

According to the MAS, even if your token services are as much a side hustle as your Sunday hobbies, if you’re operating overseas from Singapore, you better be licensed. The big boss says no transition period—that’s fancy talk for no extended grace. Come June 30, 2025, if you’re caught without a license, expect trouble, maybe even a jail cell—because who doesn’t love a bit of spice in their compliance?

Crypto illustration

Fines, Jails, and Tough Luck

Ignore the rules, and you might find yourself paying SGD 250,000—roughly USD 200,000—and possibly doing three years of jail time. All for the noble cause of “regulatory compliance,” or so they say. Only firms already swimming in other legal waters—like securities laws or payment acts—can keep on doing what they do without raising eyebrows. The rest? Better find a new hobby or a new country.

Crypto crackdown

Exec Warns: Licenses Will Be Scarce as Hen’s Teeth

Hagen Rooke, a guy from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher, probably with a glass of whiskey in hand, warns that licenses from MAS will be as rare as hen’s teeth. Why? Because these services raise flags in all the wrong places—money launders, terrorists, and all that jazz. Rooke advises firms to consider knocking off their Singapore ties or moving their operations across the border before getting caught in this regulatory web. “Good luck,” he seems to say.

Big Decisions for Little Fish

The smaller fish—those mid-sized firms that built dreams on Singapore’s shores—now face a tough choice: shrink their operations down to just their backyard or move everything abroad. Cost is a big factor, and the extra bureaucracy might just chase the talent away—engineers fleeing to friendlier shores where they’re not policed like misbehaving schoolkids. Meanwhile, the big fish—banks and startups already licensed elsewhere—may just sit back and watch the chaos.

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2025-06-04 12:15