Chain News by Thebittimes.Com

Ravi Menon says the country is instead clearing a path for CBDCs and regulated stablecoins. There will not be a place for private cryptocurrencies such as Bitcoin (BTC) and Ethereum (ETH) in the monetary scene as many of them fail the “fundamental tests of financial services,” Monetary Authority of Singapore’s managing director Ravi Menon believes. Speaking at a panel discussion on the Future of Monetary System on Nov. 28, 2023, Menon said that private crypto currencies “have miserably failed the test of money because they can’t keep value.” “Nobody keeps their life savings in these things. People buy and sell these things to make a quick buck.” Ravi Menon While Menon didn’t specifically name which crypto currencies will be barred from the market, he suggested that a future monetary system will be based only on central bank digital currencies (CBDCs), tokenized bank liabilities and “well-regulated” stablecoins, witho...

The Monetary Authority of Singapore has unveiled its plan to launch a live wholesale CBDC used for settlements by local banks. A pilot program for a live Singapore dollar-based central bank digital currency (CBDC) was unveiled by Singapore’s central bank with a wholesale CBDC to be used by local banks for settle ments.  “I am pleased to announce that MAS will pilot the ‘live’ issuance of wholesale CBDCs to instantaneously settle payments across commercial banks,” MAS Managing Director Ravi Menon said on Nov. 16 at the Singapore Fintech Festival. The MAS had previously only simulated the issuance of a CBDC in test environments, Menon said the central bank would soon partner with Singaporean banks to test using a CBDC as a settlement asset for domestic payments. As part of the test program, Menon explained banks will issue tokenized liabilities that represent claims on their balance sheets. Retail customers could use those tokenized liabilities to transact with merchants, which woul...

In a startling turn of events, Su Zhu, the co-founder of Three Arrows Capital (3AC), found himself in custody at Singapore Changi Airport as he attempted to leave the country, following a committal order issued by the Singaporean courts. This unfolding drama has been brought to light by Cointelegraph, with insights provided by Teneo, the joint liquidator tasked with managing the affairs of the defunct hedge fund. Teneo, in an official statement, disclosed that Su Zhu was apprehended at Changi Airport while trying to exit Singapore, precisely after the courts had granted a committal order against him. This type of order, for the uninitiated, is employed to incarcerate individuals for contempt of court. Notably, on September 25th, Teneo successfully obtained this committal request, citing Zhu’s alleged failure to comply with a court directive. The investigation revolves around the arduous quest to recover assets on behalf of 3AC’s creditors. This $10 billion hedge fund met i...

The opposition party MPs has questioned the credibility over its failure to protect retail investors from FTX collapse and had demanded data on the extent of losses incurred by the investors. The collapse of the now-bankrupt cryptocurrency exchange FTX has put the Singapore prime minister and the ruling government in a hot seat. Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong and Deputy Prime Minister Lawrence Wong are set to face grilling questions for their failure to protect retail investors. The Members of Parliament (MP) from the opposition Workers’ party raised 15 questions about Temasek’s investment and FTX collapse . The MPs questioned the government ’s credibility in tracking the extent of investments by Temasek and Singapore’s sovereign wealth fund GIC. The discussions around the government policies while investing in digital assets will be scrutinized further in a parliamentary discussion on Nov. 28, reported a Singaporean daily. The opposition MPs have recommended a bipartisan committee to...