Singapore's DigiFT Wins MAS Regulatory Approval
DigiFT has won the seal of approval from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS).
On Tuesday, the firm announced it has been awarded the Capital Markets Services (CMS) licence and obtained recognition as a Recognised Market Operator (RMO).
The Singapore-based exchange was the first and only exchange for on-chain assets enrolled in the MAS FinTech Regulatory Sandbox. It has now been granted a full CMS license after earning the in-principal approval in October.
A CMS licence allows DigiFT to conduct the regulated activity of dealing in capital markets products that are securities by facilitating the issuance of security tokens. Its RMO licensee allows it to operate an organised market for secondary trading of security tokens on the public blockchain.
“Securing both the CMS licence and RMO recognition is a significant milestone in our journey to enable regulated access to financial opportunities on-chain," said Henry Zhang, founder and CEO of DigiFT, in an announcement.
"As the first exchange on the public blockchain to use an AMM mechanism for secondary trading, we will continue to unlock innovations, as a RMO, in the intersection of finance and blockchain technology, including the tokenisation of real-world assets.”
Regulatory Engagement
Speaking to Blockhead in November, Zhang praised MAS for driving regulated growth in the industry and looks forward to working even closer with the regulator.
"We've been working closely with MAS as we want to position ourselves as a responsible innovator and apply this technology to the financial industry, which is highly regulated," Zhang said.
"From our perspective, we've chosen to work closely with regulators and embrace regulations. So far, we've appreciated and recognised the efforts of MAS not only for us but for the industry to create the ecosystem."
"We hope MAS will continue to embrace innovations and choose the right players to pilot their initiatives, and to allow the expansion of new business models after a reasonable period of observations."
MAS has taken a tough stance on crypto but Singapore firms have appreciated their proactive framework.