Binance Singapore’s plan for obtaining a crypto trading license in the city-state of Singapore has been scrapped as of the newest reports. More than 170 firms had applied for the Digital Payment Token License in Singapore, but only four had their applications approved. The rest of the applicant firms either withdrew or had their applications rejected. Binance is among the many firms that withdrew their applications. On top of that, Binance announced that the Singapore arm of the exchange, Binance.sg, will not be operational from 13th February 2022. No new users can register for the platform within this time, and trading will stop from 12th January 2022. Such a decision from Binance falls into its larger trend of dissolving or emerging affiliates and focusing on the global entity. Binance has reported that Binance Asia Services will now be a hub of education, technology, and research.
Binance is the leading cryptocurrency exchange in the world. Despite its global stature, it has historically come in conflict with various governments. In the recent past, the government of the United Kingdom prohibited Binance from setting up offices in the country. Singapore’s apex regulatory body – the Monetary Authority of Singapore – has had conflicts with Binance Asia Services in the past due to policies and proposed regulations. Despite setbacks, the CEO of Binance Changpeng Zhao is hopeful about the firm’s future. How Binance realigns their goals and reforms internal policies will determine how strongly they came up in an increasingly competitive market.
