- An exchange serving Singapore needs a MAS license under the Payment Services Act. On 7 October 2026 the MAS Financial Institutions Directory listed 38 entries for major payment institutions with a digital payment token service.
- Binance, Bybit, KuCoin, Bitget and MEXC are on the MAS Investor Alert List.
- Most exchanges let you deposit Singapore dollars free by PayNow or FAST. Trading fees run from about 0.1% to 1.2% plus a spread, and many exchanges publish no percentage for the simple buy button.
- Crypto at an exchange is not covered by deposit insurance. Licensed exchanges must keep customers’ assets in a trust account, separate from their own.
This page compares the crypto exchanges that serve residents of Singapore and explains how to check one. The rules they work under are on regulation. We do not rank or recommend any exchange, and there are no affiliate links. Fees change often: the figures below are what each exchange published on its own pages on 7 October 2026. Whether a provider is licensed comes from the MAS registers.
Who may serve you
Under the Payment Services Act 2019, a business that buys or sells digital payment tokens (DPTs), runs a platform to exchange them, holds them for customers or transfers them needs a MAS license. An exchange is normally a major payment institution with “Digital Payment Token Service” among its licensed activities. The MAS Financial Institutions Directory shows the licence type and activities, but not the date of the license. These are the main exchanges for residents, as listed in the directory on 7 October 2026:
| Exchange | Legal entity in the MAS directory | License (MAS) | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Coinbase | Coinbase Singapore Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | – |
| Coinhako | SBI Coinhako Technology Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | – |
| Crypto.com | Foris DAX Asia Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | Entity named on Crypto.com’s Singapore pages |
| Gemini | Gemini Digital Payments Singapore, Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | – |
| Independent Reserve | Independent Reserve SG Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | – |
| OKX | OKX SG Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | – |
| Upbit | Upbit Singapore Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | – |
| StraitsX | Xfers Pte. Ltd. (trading as StraitsX) and StraitsX Payment Services Pte. Ltd. | Major payment institution, DPT service | Stablecoins XSGD and XUSD only |
| DBS Digital Exchange | DBS Digital Exchange Pte. Ltd. | Recognised market operator | Crypto trading through DBS is for accredited investors only |
Other exchanges and brokers in the directory with a DPT service include Bitstamp Asia, Blockchain.com (Singapore), HashKey Technology Services, Revolut Technologies Singapore and Moomoo Financial Singapore. Many of the 38 entries are not exchanges for consumers but, for example, stablecoin issuers, custodians or payment firms, and some firms appear twice under a trading name.
Not licensed, or on the alert list
The MAS Investor Alert List names firms that “may be or may have been wrongly perceived as being licensed or in any other way authorised or regulated by MAS”. On 7 October 2026 it included these crypto exchanges (with the date of the entry):
- Binance: www.binance.com (2 September 2021)
- Bybit: Bybit Fintech Limited (17 June 2026)
- KuCoin: Peken Global Limited, www.kucoin.com (11 February 2026)
- Bitget (8 September 2025), MEXC (18 March 2025), Phemex (27 February 2025) and CoinEx (22 October 2020)
Kraken was neither in the directory nor on the alert list. Tokenize Xchange was not in the directory, and its website no longer showed an exchange when we checked; we found no official statement about it.
Fees compared
The table shows what each exchange’s own pages said on 7 October 2026, for a normal retail customer at the lowest fee level. “Simple buy” is the buy or convert button in the app; “advanced” is the order book (maker / taker). A spread is the difference between the buying and selling price and is an extra cost on top of the fee. “Not found” means we could not find or read the figure on the exchange’s own pages; some exchange sites could not be read from outside Singapore.
| Exchange | Simple buy | Advanced (maker / taker) | SGD deposit | SGD withdrawal | Coins to your own wallet |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coinbase | Conversion fee plus spread, shown before the trade; rate not found | Not found (“as low as 0.0%” maker, its own claim) | Free by PayNow or FAST | Not found | Yes, network fee shown at checkout |
| Coinhako | 0.6% plus spread (limit order 0.5%) | – | Free by PayNow or FAST | SGD 2 | Yes, network fee |
| Crypto.com | Admin fee shown in the trade preview; rate not found | Not found | Free by FAST | SGD 1.99 (minimum SGD 50) | Yes, fee shown in the app; not found |
| Gemini | Fee shown before the trade, plus a spread | 0.60% / 1.20% | Free by PayNow or FAST | SGD 3 by FAST | Yes, variable network fee |
| Independent Reserve | Not found | Not found | Free by PayNow; SGD 2.50 by FAST, free from SGD 1,000 | SGD 1.50 by FAST | Yes, 0.0001 BTC |
| OKX SG | Convert: “zero trading fees”; spread not stated | 0.10% / 0.20% | Free by PayNow | Free by FAST (its own article) | Yes, fee not found |
| Upbit SG | Not found | Not found | PayNow and FAST; fee not found | Not found | Not found |
| StraitsX | Swap: no additional fee, rate included | – | Free (FAST) | Free | Stablecoins only; network fee, capped |
| DBS (accredited investors) | Brokerage up to 0.65% plus 0.1% exchange fee per trade | – | – | – | No: transfers in or out are not accepted |
A few things the table does not show:
- Coinhako charges 2.8% for a purchase paid with GrabPay.
- Gemini charges SGD 25 for a wire withdrawal, and PayNow cannot be used to withdraw.
- DBS also charges a custody fee of 0.50% a year, trades only against US dollars, and has a minimum of USD 500 per trade.
- Licensed providers may not accept Singapore-issued credit or charge cards from retail customers (see regulation).
Features compared
| Exchange | Number of coins (its own claim) | Staking for retail customers | Recurring buy | Bitcoin Lightning | Risk awareness assessment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coinbase | 400+ | Staking terms apply “subject to eligibility”; retail not stated | Yes | Not found | Not found |
| Coinhako | Not found | No (structured products instead) | Yes (0.5%) | Not found | Yes, from 18 June 2025 |
| Crypto.com | Not found | No: accredited investors only | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| Gemini | Not found | No: accredited investors only | Yes | Not found | Yes (knowledge assessment) |
| Independent Reserve | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not verified |
| OKX SG | Not found | Not confirmed for Singapore | Yes | Not found | Yes (knowledge test) |
| Upbit SG | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found | Not found |
| StraitsX | Stablecoins XSGD and XUSD | No: Earn only for accredited and institutional investors | – | – | Yes |
| DBS | 7 listed | No | Not found | No | Accredited investors only |
The missing staking is no accident: since 4 October 2024, MAS expects licensed providers not to stake or lend a retail customer’s tokens. Exchanges that offer staking in Singapore do so only for accredited investors.
How to check a provider
- Look the provider up in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory. Check that the legal entity you sign up with is the one in the directory, and that “Digital Payment Token Service” is among its activities.
- Search the MAS Investor Alert List. It is not exhaustive, and MAS no longer lists every firm that impersonates a licensed institution, so use the contact details in the directory rather than links you were sent.
- Read the fee page before you deposit, and look at the spread and the cost of withdrawing coins as well as the trading fee.
- If you are unsure whether an offer is a scam, call the ScamShield Helpline on 1799.
A license means a provider is supervised; it does not make the coins safe. MAS says its measures “cannot insulate customers from losses associated with the inherently speculative and highly risky nature of cryptocurrency trading”.
Enforcement
MAS revoked the major payment institution license of Bsquared Technology Pte. Ltd. with effect from 14 May 2026, after an inspection found serious breaches, including information that was “false or misleading in material particulars”. Bsquared had been licensed on 1 January 2025, and told MAS it held no customer money or assets. Since 30 June 2025, providers in Singapore that served only customers abroad without a license have had to stop (see regulation).
If an exchange fails
There is no guarantee scheme for crypto. The Singapore Deposit Insurance Corporation (SDIC) insures only Singapore dollar deposits in savings, fixed deposit and current accounts (and some retirement scheme money) with its member banks and finance companies; crypto is not among them. MAS said in 2022 that customers are “not subject to any statutory protection for their trading of DPTs”. What the rules do require:
- Separation. Since 4 October 2024, licensed DPT service providers must segregate customers’ assets and place them in a trust account for the benefit of customers, keep proper books and records, and have controls to protect the assets.
- No lending of your coins. The provider may not lend, stake or pledge a retail customer’s tokens, which limits how far your coins are exposed to the provider’s own risks.
- Closing down. When a license ends, the PS Act requires a closure certificate from the auditors confirming that customer money has reached the intended recipients (section 22(7)).
These rules lower the risk but do not remove it. Coins in your own wallet do not depend on an exchange at all; the rules for that are on regulation.
Where to complain
- The exchange first. Under MAS Guidelines PS-G03, a licensed provider must publish its complaints process, point of contact and timeframes, handle complaints through a unit that is not involved in the DPT services, and give written reasons if it rejects a complaint.
- FIDReC. The Financial Industry Disputes Resolution Centre mediates and adjudicates disputes with financial institutions that subscribe to it, free for consumers, with adjudication up to SGD 150,000 per claim (claims filed from 1 July 2024). MAS does not require DPT providers to subscribe; it says they “may voluntarily engage the services of FIDReC” on an ad hoc basis for an agreed case fee. Ask your exchange whether it will.
- Mediation, arbitration or court. MAS expects providers to resolve disputes with retail customers through the main dispute resolution routes in Singapore, including litigation in the Singapore courts, and not to restrict your right to seek legal recourse unreasonably.
- Fraud. If you were scammed, report it to the police (see regulation).
Sources
- MAS: Financial Institutions Directory (major payment institutions with digital payment token service, 7 October 2026) (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: Investor Alert List (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: MAS expands scope of regulated payment services; introduces user protection requirements for DPT service providers (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: PS-G03 Guidelines on consumer protection measures by DPT service providers (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: MAS strengthens regulatory measures for digital payment token services (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: Response to feedback on proposed regulatory measures for DPT services, part 2 (23 November 2023) (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: MAS issues guidelines to discourage cryptocurrency trading by general public (last checked October 2026)
- MAS: MAS revokes the major payment institution licence of Bsquared Technology Pte Ltd (last checked October 2026)
- SDIC: Scope of deposit insurance coverage (last checked October 2026)
- FIDReC: FAQs (last checked October 2026)
- ScamShield: Check for scams (last checked October 2026)
Exchange pages (not official sources)
Fees and features come from each exchange’s own pages, checked on 7 October 2026. They are the exchange’s own statements, not checked by a regulator.
- Coinbase: User agreement (Singapore) and Coinbase Singapore home page (last checked October 2026)
- Coinhako: Coinhako fees and Risk Awareness Assessment (last checked October 2026)
- Crypto.com: SGD withdrawals (help center) and Singapore accredited investor (last checked October 2026)
- Gemini: ActiveTrader fee schedule, Transfer fee schedule and SGD deposits and withdrawals (last checked October 2026)
- Independent Reserve: Deposit fees (public API) and Withdrawal fees (public API) (last checked October 2026)
- OKX SG: Fees and OKX SG beginner’s guide (last checked October 2026)
- Upbit Singapore: Home page (last checked October 2026)
- StraitsX: Personal account transaction fee schedule (last checked October 2026)
- DBS Treasures: Cryptocurrency trading (last checked October 2026)
This page is general information, not financial advice. Fees and licenses change, so check the MAS directory and the exchange’s own fee page before you open an account.