Singaporean Authorities Change Their Stance On Cryptocurrency Regulation

Singapore has always been considered as a country which is loyal to the crypto industry. However, the authorities decided to change the rhetoric regarding the cryptocurrency. It became known that the country's Ministry of Law announced that it does not consider cryptocurrency as a legal tender. The Ministry ordered the companies to carry out the necessary legal verification before accepting cryptocurrency as payment, Business Times reports.

The possible reason for the strict stance could be the decision of SK Jewellery, a large chain of jewelry stores, to partner with the Bizkey Network startup in order to accept bitcoin and other digital assets as payment. The authorities consider these transactions to be suspicious and thus reported about new measures in this situation.

Just last week, the Ministry also introduced a bill to tighten the rules for combating money laundering as well as CTF rules for the precious stones and metals industry. The bill considers the digital asset payments, and also proposes a framework for regulation. Representatives of the jewelry company claim that they follow all the laws and rules of Singapore and don’t accept the assumptions made by the authorities.

“The acceptance of crypto merely serves as another option of payment for our customers and, other than it being a more unconventional mode of payment now, it’s business as usual,”

— claimed the spokesperson of SK Jewellery.

Image courtesy of SK Jewellery