- MAS partners with leading banks to explore DeFi potential
- Project Guardian seeks to gauge whether DeFi Apps running on public blockchains can improve wholesale borrowing and lending processes
- Leading crypto exchanges are exiting Singapore due to regulatory scrutiny
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has announced the commencement of “Project Guardian”, a collaborative initiative with the financial industry that seeks to explore the economic potential and value-adding use cases of asset tokenization.
Project Guardian, launched by Heng Swee Keat, Deputy Prime Minister and Coordinating Minister for Economic Policies, at the Asia Tech x Singapore Summit, will test the feasibility of applications in asset tokenization and DeFi while managing risks to financial stability and integrity.
Sopnendu Mohanty, Chief FinTech Officer, MASMAS is closely monitoring innovations and growth in the digital asset ecosystem and working through the potential opportunities and risks that come with new technologies – to consumers, investors, and the financial system at large.
Mohanty added that through practical experimentation with the financial industry and the broader ecosystem, MAS seeks to sharpen its understanding in this rapidly transforming digital assets ecosystem and that the learnings from Project Guardian will serve to inform policy markets on the regulatory guardrails that are needed to harness the benefits of DeFi while mitigating its risks.
MAS aims to develop and pilot use cases in Open and interoperable networks, Trust anchors, Asset tokenization, and Institutional grade DeFi protocols.
The first industry pilot under Project Guardian will explore potential DeFi applications in wholesale funding markets and will be led by DBS Bank Ltd., JP Morgan, and Marketnode.
It will involve the creation of a permissioned liquidity pool comprising tokenized bonds and deposits. The pilot aims to carry out secured borrowing and lending on a public blockchain-based network through the execution of smart contracts.
Increased regulatory scrutiny and long wait times for crypto exchanges applying for licenses had clouded hopes for Singapore to become a global hub for digital assets, with the localized arm of the global exchange Binance shutting down last December.
Crypto derivatives platform Bybit relocated its headquarters from Singapore to Dubai in April. Singapore-based exchange Crypto.com has also signaled the company plans to open its first Dubai outpost.
