Singaporeans suffered big losses from FTX collapse due to switching to it after Binance was banned in that country. MAS explained why there were restrictions on Binance and no restrictions on FTX

Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) issued a statement explaining why crypto-exchange FTX – in advance of its collapse – was not included in the document. Which warns investors about the illegality of this company’s activities on state territory.

Singapore was the second hardest hit by the FTX crash. According to a CoinGecko report, Singapore accounted for 5% of global traffic to FTX.com. That is, on average, more than 241,000 unique users per month. Analysts attribute this to the fact that the ban of Binance exchange in 2021 in Singapore led to. That users of the exchange Binance moved to FTX.

The MAS, which serves as the country’s central bank, maintains an Investor Alert List (IAL). This list includes those companies that could be mistakenly perceived as licensed or permitted by the regulator. On September 2, 2021, Binance.com was included in this list.

In a November 21 statement, MAS explains why it treated Binance differently than FTX. And included Binance in the IAL list, while FTX did not. Despite the fact that both Binance and FTX are not licensed in Singapore. But Binance actively attracted users in Singapore and offered products in Singapore dollars. FTX did not, according to the MAS report.

In addition, Binance has received complaints about unlicensed customer referrals on its part. Binance was also investigated for possible violations of the Payment Services Act.

Regarding FTX, the regulator said there was no evidence that it attracted Singaporean users. And this platform did not offer products in Singapore dollars.

Conclusions from FTX fiasco

MAS also said that there are hundreds of such exchanges and thousands of other offshore organizations. Which accept investments. MAS does not have the ability to put them all on the IAL list. But that doesn’t mean it’s okay to deal with such organizations.

According to regulator, the most important lesson from the FTX fiasco is that transactions with any cryptocurrency on any platform are dangerous.

Our experts conclude that MAS was somehow interested in FTX. Because the blocking of Binance was done and the second top exchange, as if they did not notice. In any case, we agree with them that operations with any cryptocurrency on any platform are risks.