Crypto Country GuideCrypto rules and tax, country by country

Singapore: regulation

Last reviewed: October 2026

On this page
  1. Legal status and supervision
    1. Providers serving only customers abroad
    2. No advertising to the public
  2. Exchanges and KYC
    1. What licensed providers must do for retail customers
    2. Identity checks and the travel rule
  3. Stablecoins
  4. Crypto ATMs
  5. Scams
  6. Self-custody
    1. If you lose access to your wallet
  7. Sources
  • Providers of digital payment token (DPT) services need a license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Since 30 June 2025 that also applies to providers in Singapore that serve only customers abroad, and MAS says it will generally not license them.
  • Licensed providers may not stake or lend a retail customer’s tokens, offer incentives to trade, give credit or leverage, or accept Singapore-issued credit cards. You must pass a risk awareness assessment first.
  • MAS is consulting on a law for “MAS-regulated stablecoins” until 16 October 2026. Other stablecoins are treated as DPTs.
  • Crypto scams cost victims in Singapore about SGD 182.2 million in 2025. Check the MAS Investor Alert List and report fraud to the police; call 1799 if unsure.

This page covers who supervises crypto in Singapore, what that means when you use an exchange, and the rules for your own wallet. The licensed exchanges themselves are compared on exchanges. It is general information, not legal advice.

Owning and trading crypto is legal in Singapore, but it is not legal tender: IRAS notes that a payment token “is not issued by any government and is not legal tender”. MAS regulates the businesses, not the coins. Under the Payment Services Act 2019 (PS Act), buying or selling DPTs and running a platform to exchange them is a regulated “digital payment token service”. Since 4 April 2024 the scope also covers custody of DPTs and the facilitation of transfers and exchanges, even where the provider never holds the money or tokens. MAS can impose requirements on these providers for anti-money laundering, user protection and financial stability.

MAS has warned for years that trading DPTs “is highly risky and not suitable for the general public”. In 2022 it noted that customers of regulated providers “are otherwise not subject to any statutory protection for their trading of DPTs”.

Providers serving only customers abroad

From 30 June 2025, digital token service providers (DTSPs) that operate from Singapore but serve only customers outside Singapore need a license under the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022. This covers DPTs and tokens of capital markets products; utility and governance tokens are outside the regime. MAS said it “has set the bar high for licensing and will generally not issue a licence”, because the money-laundering risks are higher and it cannot supervise activity that takes place abroad. Providers that serve customers in Singapore were already regulated and may also serve customers abroad.

No advertising to the public

Since 17 January 2022, MAS guidelines say DPT service providers should not market or advertise their services in public areas in Singapore, such as public transport, public websites, social media platforms and broadcast and print media, and should not use third parties such as social media influencers. They may advertise only on their own corporate websites, mobile apps and official social media accounts.

Exchanges and KYC

Before you use a provider, look it up in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory: an exchange for DPTs should be listed as a major payment institution (or a standard payment institution) with “Digital Payment Token Service” among its activities. Banks that offer DPT services are not licensed under the PS Act, but MAS counts them among DPT service providers for its guidelines. The licensed exchanges, their fees and the ones on the MAS Investor Alert List are on exchanges.

What licensed providers must do for retail customers

MAS Guidelines PS-G03 (revised 19 September 2024) set these expectations. Accredited and institutional investors are treated differently.

FromRule
4 October 2024Customer assets kept separate in a trust account for the customers. The provider should not lend, stake, pledge or mortgage a retail customer’s tokens, or arrange for that.
19 June 2025A risk awareness assessment before any DPT service is provided to a retail customer
19 June 2025No incentives or gifts to get retail customers to trade, no credit, margin or leverage, no DPT derivatives for retail, and no payments with credit or charge cards issued in Singapore
19 June 2025A published complaints procedure, a complaints unit that is not involved in the DPT services, and written reasons when a complaint is rejected

Identity checks and the travel rule

MAS Notice PSN02 (last revised on 30 June 2025) sets the anti-money-laundering rules. Expect to prove your identity when you open an account. Every transfer of tokens carries the names of the sender and the recipient and their account numbers (or a unique transaction reference). For a transfer above SGD 1,500, the provider must also verify the sender’s identity and send the sender’s address, an identification number, or the date and place of birth.

Stablecoins

MAS set out its framework for single-currency stablecoins (MAS-SCS) on 15 August 2023. It applies to stablecoins issued in Singapore and pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency. Only issuers licensed under the framework may call their tokens “MAS-regulated stablecoins”. Stablecoins that are not MAS-regulated are treated as DPTs, with the same consumer protection rules.

On 1 September 2026 MAS published the legislative amendments to the PS Act that would put the framework into law, covering value stability, capital, redemption at par and disclosure. It also proposes to ban interest on MAS-regulated stablecoins, to allow joint issuance with a foreign issuer, and to recognize a limited number of foreign-issued stablecoins for wholesale use. Comments are due by 16 October 2026. At the time of writing (October 2026) the amendments are not yet law.

Stablecoins are also not “digital payment tokens” for GST; see business tax.

Crypto ATMs

MAS’s 2022 guidelines list “provision of physical ATMs” in public areas among the forms of marketing that DPT service providers should not use, because they could encourage people to trade on impulse. We found no MAS rule that bans crypto ATMs outright, and no list of crypto ATMs in Singapore (October 2026).

Scams

According to the Singapore Police Force, victims lost about SGD 182.2 million in cryptocurrency to scams in 2025, about 20% of all scam losses. The police and ScamShield name three main types:

  • Investment scams (38.4% of crypto losses in 2025): ads or online contacts with “investments” that promise high returns, a new crypto account you are coached to open, and a request to send the coins to a “designated wallet” or to share your login or seed phrase.
  • Government official impersonation: callers who accuse you of a crime such as money laundering and tell you to move your money into crypto for “investigation” or “safeguarding”.
  • Job scams: a “commission” for helping to boost the value of a cryptocurrency.

The police say: “If an unknown person is teaching you how to create a cryptocurrency account, it is likely a scam”, and never give anyone your seed phrase, private keys or authentication codes. Government officials will never ask you to transfer cryptocurrency. MAS publishes an Investor Alert List of firms that may be wrongly seen as licensed by MAS, and warns that scammers impersonate licensed firms.

If it happened to you:

  1. Contact your crypto platform to stop further transactions or freeze your account, and your bank if your bank account or card is involved.
  2. If a seed phrase has leaked, move the remaining coins to a new wallet at once, and revoke suspicious token approvals.
  3. File a police report online or at a Neighbourhood Police Centre. For urgent help call 999; for scam information the Police Hotline is 1800-255-0000. The 24/7 ScamShield Helpline is 1799.
  4. Report phishing websites to CSA’s SingCERT.

Be realistic about recovery. ScamShield explains that once money has left Singapore, the police cannot freeze or seize it abroad and the chance of recovery “is very low”; the police add that crypto transfers are non-reversible. Seized money is only returned when the investigation is over.

Self-custody

MAS sets no rules for people who keep their own tokens, and we found no requirement to register a self-hosted wallet. The rules reach you when you move tokens between a provider and your own wallet. The travel rule in Notice PSN02 does not apply to such transfers, but the provider must apply “enhanced risk mitigation measures” to transfers to or from anyone other than a regulated financial institution (paragraph 6.27). In practice this can mean proving that you control the wallet, for example by sending an amount the provider specifies, and identifying the other party and screening the transfer, as MAS guidance on the Notice describes.

Holding crypto yourself means the keys are your responsibility. If you keep larger amounts of bitcoin in your own wallet, this explanation of multisig versus single-sig sets out what each setup protects against.

If you lose access to your wallet

We found no guidance from IRAS or MAS on crypto you can no longer reach (October 2026). Since gains on investments are not taxed, losing access usually has no income tax effect for a private investor; for a trader, a loss is deductible only if it is revenue in nature, which IRAS decides on the facts. Plan for your heirs too: what to arrange for email, password managers and online accounts is covered in this introduction to planning a digital estate.

Sources

This page is general information, not legal advice. Rules change, so check the official sources above before you act.