‘Singapore is not a place to speculate’: regulator warns cryptocurrency firms clampdown will continue
- A senior central bank official told traders to ‘reduce their enthusiasm’ and be careful about how they lure customers
- A series of high-profile cryptocurrency collapses and market meltdowns this year has prompted warnings from the government
Sopnendu Mohanty, chief fintech officer at the Monetary Authority of Singapore, reminded the traders to be careful about how they lure customers.
“Reduce your enthusiasm and be mindful of who you are selling to,” Mohanty said on Friday at an office opening ceremony of Cobo, a digital asset custody provider. “Singapore is not a place to speculate. We will be very, very hard on this behaviour.”
Less than 24 hours earlier, Mohanty had taken on cryptocurrency players at the Token2049 conference, calling out the many exhibitor booths set up around the site for what he saw as a lack of attention to the potential dangers of operating in the cryptocurrency space.
“Look at what the advertisements say. None of them talk about risk,” he said, singling out a booth near the stage that he felt had an overly bold slogan. “Consumer awareness is a big challenge for us now. We’ve got to repeatedly let the market know this asset class is not suitable for retail investors.”
