The Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence, granted by the MAS, will permit Coinbase to offer digital payment token services to individuals and institutions in the country

Crypto currency exchange Coinbase has been awarded a full payments licence to operate in Singapore by the country’s central bank, the firm said on Monday.

The Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence, granted by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), will permit Coinbase to offer digital payment token services to individuals and institutions in the city-state, which has emerged as a centre for crypto in Asia in recent years.

Coinbase, the world’s biggest listed crypto exchange, was granted initial approval in October 2022.

Singapore has attracted digital asset firms from countries including China and India. Coinbase said it is a “vital market” for the firm, citing survey figures showing that 32% of Singaporeans either own crypto or have done so in the past.

However, a number of failures at crypto companies in 2022, including hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC), cooled fervour about the industry. Singapore’s state investment company, Temasek, cut the pay of the team who proposed a $275 million investment in now-bankrupt FTX.

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, which is the country’s central bank and financial regulator, stated on its website last month that it only grants licences to crypto currency companies if they have robust anti-money laundering controls and that “most applicants have not been successful”.

Fourteen firms, including the Singapore arms of British fintech Revolut and London-based crypto company Blockchain.com, have obtained a crypto payments licence, the MAS said.

Reuters reported last year that nearly 180 firms had applied for the crypto payments licence in 2020 under a new regime.

In August last year, the MAS said that it was planning regulations that will make it harder for retail investors to trade crypto currencies at a time when they appear to be “irrationally oblivious” about the risks involved.

At the time, Ravi Menon, MD of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, gave a seminar titled “Yes to digital asset innovation, No to crypto currency speculation.”