MAS Initiates CBDC Project—Yet Aspires to Make Singapore Crypto Hub, Again!

In its press release, the Monetary Authority of Singapore(MAS) informed about the launch of Ubin+ ambition to explore the use of central bank digital currency(CBDC) for cross-border currency transactions.

Ubin+ will test the use of CBDCs for foreign exchange and liquidity management and the connectivity between CBDCs and other digital asset network. Under the project, the bank will also explore how systems established on distributed ledger technology(DLT) could interact with non-ledger payment systems.

Currently, many countries and their central banks are preparing roadmaps to enter the digital currency era.

On 26 October 2022, TheCoinRepublic reported that Turkey’s central bank announced that it was considering issuing a CBDC to complement its existing payments infrastructure in a project.

Which will be entitled “Central Bank Digital Turkish Lira Research and Development” a year after the announcement, Turkey has announced to launch of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) next year.

Project Mariana, the effort to supervise foreign exchange and liquidity, contains the MAS, Switzerland, and France’s central banks with the BIS Innovation Hub centers. The project will examine foreign exchange transactions with the Swiss Franc, Euro, and Singapore Dollar.

A day after the MAS, Singapore’s central bank launched two new projects for trade finance and wealth management products, it was announced.

Singapore has always been aiming to be a crypto hub. Still, in the past few months, it has been observed that crypto firms are interestingly relocating their offices to Dubai, which is on the verge of becoming the new crypto capital.

In his opening address at Singapore Fintech Festival held on 2 November 2022, Ravi Menon informed CNBC that “If a crypto hub is about experimenting with programmable money, applying digital assets for the use cases or tokenizing financial assets to increase effciency and reduce risk in financial transactions,yes,we want to be a crypto hub.”

The Development Bank of Singapore Limited is trialing Singapore’s first digital money live pilot for government vouchers, allowing merchants to program self-execute the allocation and usage.

Ravi added, “But if it is about trading and speculating in cryptocurrencies, that is not the kind of crypto hub we want to be.”

TheCoinRepublic, in its report published on 19 September 2022, noted that MAS(Monetary Authority of Singapore) restricts crypto usage and calls it ‘Heavily Speculated Upon.’

According to Ravi Menon, managing director of the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the central bank of Singapore aims to encourage the ecosystem of digital assets while limiting cryptocurrency speculation (MAS).

During his opening remarks at a Green Shoots Seminar on Monday, Menon insisted that his viewpoint is not at odds with anything else. Announcements and introductions of new goods and policies are made at Green Shoots sessions for the financial services industry.

Andrew is a blockchain developer who developed his interest in cryptocurrencies while his post-graduation. He is a keen observer of details and shares his passion for writing along with being a developer. His backend knowledge about blockchain helps him give a unique perspective to his writing