Hassan Maishera
TL;DR
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Upbit Singapore has obtained a Major Payment Institution license.
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The crypto exchange wants to expand its offering following this MAS license.
Upbit Obtains a MAS License in Singapore
South Korean crypto exchange Upbit’s Singapore unit has obtained a Major Payment Institution (MPI) license from Singapore’s leading financial regulator. The cryptocurrency exchange announced this latest development in a blog post on Monday, January 8th.
The license issued by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) came a few months after Upbit received the in-principle approval from the regulator in October. While commenting on this latest development, Upbit’s company’s founder and CEO Alex Kim, said,
“Upbit Singapore is poised to be the nexus of institutional activities, capitalizing on Singapore's robust regulatory framework and its reputation as a leading financial center in Asia.”
Raks Sondhi, chief operating officer of Upbit Singapore, added that,
“We will increase the list of digital assets available, along with liquidity and institutional service offerings with client protection measures kept at the forefront.”
Upbit is expanding its presence globally and currently operates crypto trading platforms in Thailand and Indonesia. The crypto exchange is also the largest in South Korea, accounting for 48% of the total spot crypto trading volume, according to data from CoinMarketCap.
Upbit also handled $4.2 billion worth of crypto transactions in the last 24 hours. The cryptocurrency exchange is one of the five fully licensed trading platforms in South Korea, with Bithumb, Coinone, Korbit and Gopax as the other four.
