Singapore's financial authority grants license to SBI's digital asset arm

The Monetary Authority of Singapore, or MAS, has granted SBI Digital Markets, a subsidiary of the digital asset arm of Japan-based financial giant SBI Holdings, a license to conduct certain regulated activities in the country.

In a Thursday announcement, MAS said it had awarded SBI Digital Markets a Capital Markets Services license following the firm receiving in-principle approval in May. The firm, whose parent company offers digital asset custody and trading, will be providing custodial services, capital markets products and corporate finance advisory services in Singapore as a regulated business. It also plans to launch a digital asset securities platform.

“This is an exciting milestone for SBI Digital Markets, which will play a major part in SBI DAH’s core mission to re-imagine and transform capital markets and banking value chains through the deployment of digital technology,” said SBI Digital Asset Holdings CEO Fernando Luis Vázquez Cao.

SBI Digital Markets is a subsidiary of SBI Digital Asset Holdings, the digital asset arm of one of the largest financial institutions in Japan, SBI Holdings. The company recently ceased all mining operations in Russia due to the crypto winter and the country’s role in the war on Ukraine. SBI Holdings also reported in August that one of its investees, Clear Markets, received approval from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to offer over-the-counter crypto derivatives products with a physical settlement.

As the principal financial regulator in Singapore, the MAS has the authority to grant licenses to companies aiming to offer crypto-related services to the country’s residents — the area is currently home to crypto exchange Crypto.com and the founder of the Terraform Labs, Do Kwon. Filecoin service provider RRMine Global announced on Tuesday that it planned to relocate its headquarters to Singapore in response to “tightened restrictions on cryptocurrency usage” in China.