Singapore Wants To Offer A Crypto Safe Haven For Investors

This crypto-friendly city-state is home to the founders of Ethereum, Binance and NFT collector Metakovan. For how long?

It’s easy to see why crypto luminaries including Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin, Binance founder Changpeng Zhao and Metakovan—owner of the world’s most expensive NFT—have made Singapore their base. The city-state has a lot going for it.

On the surface, it’s a calm, futuristic fantasy of a place, characterized by the colorful, otherworldly feel of the Marina Bay Sands resort. Venture closer and Singapore proves to be full of technological wizardry. It’s a ‘sensor city’ with smart initiatives to promote better living, health and mobility, omelette-making robots, smart homes, and fintech innovation galore, all underpinned by a highly-educated, service-focused populace, and a government that fronts the worldwide drive towards digitization.

KPMG, one of the 'big-four' consultancies, this week gave Singapore the top spot in its global ranking of tech hubs outside Silicon Valley—for the second time in two years. But that’s no surprise to crypto firms that have long valued its pragmatic approach to regulation and its liberal taxation policies—particularly as regulators zero in on unregulated crypto activity elsewhere.

“Within the region, Singapore has taken on a comparatively more neutral approach to crypto, acknowledging its potential benefits and encouraging innovation and experimentation in the space,” Julian Hosp, founder of Cake DeFi, a business based in the city-state, told Decrypt.

But as Singapore’s Blockchain Week kicks off, just how crypto-friendly is the city state, and how long will its liberal stance last?

Singapore first became a crypto hub during the early days of 2018’s ICO boom. But the nation’s financial institutions have also embraced blockchain.