Security News > 2023 > July > Singapore tells crypto operators: act like grown up financial institutions
In measures floated in October 2022 and to be enacted by the end of 2023, Singapore's Monetary Authority will require operators to hold customer assets under a statutory trust segregated from their own assets.
Crypto outfits are also barred from facilitating retail customer lending and staking - the term for locking up crypto assets for a set time to support blockchain validation.
Operators will also be required to reconcile customer assets daily, keep proper records, maintain access and operational controls to customer digital payment tokens in Singapore, and provide risk disclosures.
MAS will not require the use of independent custodians for customer assets as long as the operator ensures operations of the assets are independent from other business units.
Last week, South Korea issued its own digital asset protections in the form of the Virtual Asset Act.
The act imposes a number of requirements, including that operators of digital asset platform hold assets to guarantee customers' balances in offline cold wallets and secure insurance against infosec incidents.