Singapore Crypto Regulation in 2026: MAS Rules Explained

Singapore's crypto rules at a glance

Rule	Who it covers	Status, Oct 2026
Payment Services Act 2019 (PS Act)	Firms dealing in, exchanging, transferring or holding digital payment tokens (DPTs) for Singapore customers	In force; licence needed
FSMA Part 9, DTSP regime	Singapore-based firms serving only overseas customers	In force since 30 Jun 2025; licences "generally" not granted
DPT investor-protection measures	Licensed DPT providers dealing with retail	In force; no retail lending or staking
Notice PSN02 (AML/CFT, Travel Rule)	Licensed DPT providers	In force since 28 Jan 2020
Single-currency stablecoin framework	Stablecoin issuers	Consultation on legislation closed 16 Oct 2026

The Payment Services Act: the core licence

Any business that deals in or exchanges digital payment tokens, transfers them, or holds them for customers in Singapore needs a MAS licence under the PS Act. In practice that means a Major Payment Institution (MPI) licence covering DPT services; the smaller Standard Payment Institution licence has volume caps.

"Digital payment token" covers the tokens most people think of as crypto: BTC, ETH, XLM and stablecoins such as USDC and USDT. Tokens that are capital markets products, such as tokenised fund units or bonds, fall under the Securities and Futures Act instead. Licensed firms take on capital requirements, technology-risk rules, AML/CFT obligations under Notice PSN02 and, since 2023, a set of retail conduct rules. MAS publishes every licensee in its Financial Institutions Directory, which is the only reliable way to check whether a platform is licensed.

The DTSP regime: no more "offshore-only" from Singapore

Since 30 June 2025, Part 9 of the Financial Services and Markets Act requires a licence for anyone in Singapore who provides digital token services only to customers outside Singapore. MAS said on 6 June 2025 that it would generally not issue such licences and gave no transition period.

The reasoning was supervisory: if a firm's real business is abroad, MAS cannot supervise it effectively, and these models carry higher money-laundering risk. Firms already licensed under the PS Act, the Securities and Futures Act or the Financial Advisers Act for the same activity were not affected, and MAS said only a very small number of providers fell into the category. Tokens used only for utility or governance are outside the regime. The practical result was that Singapore stopped being a base for crypto firms that serve the world but not Singapore.

Retail protection: what platforms may not do

MAS's July 2023 measures require licensed DPT providers to hold customer assets in a statutory trust and stop them from facilitating lending or staking of retail customers' tokens. Accredited and institutional investors can still use those services.

MAS tied the staking and lending restriction to the 2022 collapses of Celsius and Voyager, where retail deposits were lent out and lost. A further set of retail-access measures, announced in November 2023, added a risk-awareness assessment before a retail customer can trade and barred incentives and credit-funded purchases. MAS has said it will keep the measures under review. For DeFi users this matters indirectly: a Singapore exchange will not stake your XLM or AQUA for you as a retail customer, but nothing stops you from staking on-chain yourself, with the risks that brings. See DeFi risks.

What applies to DeFi

MAS regulates activities, not code. A smart contract on its own is not a licensee, but a person or company in Singapore that runs a business providing regulated token services, through a DeFi front end or not, can need a PS Act licence or, for overseas-only users, fall under the DTSP regime.

The questions that decide it are familiar from other jurisdictions: who controls the service, who earns from it, whether customer assets are held, and where the operator is. A team that publishes non-custodial contracts and has no ongoing control is in a different position from one that runs a hosted interface and takes fees. Singapore has also used DeFi itself: MAS's Project Guardian began in 2022 with banks trading tokenised deposits and bonds through a permissioned version of a public DeFi lending protocol. The message has been consistent: DeFi technology is welcome inside guardrails; unlicensed services to the public are not.

Stablecoins: a statute is coming

MAS finalised its single-currency stablecoin framework in 2023 and said at the 2025 Singapore FinTech Festival that legislation would follow. The draft amendments to the PS Act went out for consultation on 1 September 2026; the consultation closed on 16 October 2026.

The draft adds "MAS-recognised" status for a limited number of foreign stablecoins, alongside "MAS-regulated" coins issued in Singapore, and asks whether issuers should be barred from paying interest. Details and comparisons with the US and EU are in Singapore's stablecoin framework.

KYC and AML in practice

Every licensed DPT provider must identify and verify customers, screen them against sanctions and politically exposed persons lists, monitor transactions, and send and receive originator and beneficiary data on token transfers under the Travel Rule.

Most firms buy this capability rather than build it. Identity-verification providers such as iDenfy, a Lithuanian company whose platform covers document and face verification, AML screening against sanctions, PEP and adverse-media lists, ongoing monitoring, and face re-authentication before high-value withdrawals, sit at the front of that stack. Travel Rule messaging between providers is usually a separate tool. We cover the whole stack in the crypto Travel Rule.

Singapore FinTech Festival 2026

The Singapore FinTech Festival runs from 18 to 20 November 2026 at Singapore EXPO. It is organised by MAS and the Global Finance & Technology Network with the Association of Banks in Singapore, and this year's theme is the five forces rewiring global finance: technology, geoeconomics, capital, talent and policy.

MAS has used the festival to announce policy before. At SFF 2025 its Managing Director announced a trial of tokenised MAS Bills settled in wholesale central bank money, the BLOOM initiative for tokenised bank liabilities and regulated stablecoins, and stablecoin legislation. Watch this year's keynotes for the final shape of the stablecoin law and the next stage of tokenisation work. For crypto firms, the festival is also where the compliance vendors (identity verification, blockchain analytics, Travel Rule networks) are easiest to meet in one place.

Timeline

Date	Change
28 Jan 2020	Payment Services Act and Notice PSN02 (including the Travel Rule) in force
Jul and Nov 2023	Investor-protection and retail-access measures for DPT services announced
Aug 2023	Single-currency stablecoin framework finalised
30 Jun 2025	DTSP regime under FSMA Part 9 in force
1 Sep - 16 Oct 2026	Consultation on stablecoin legislation
18-20 Nov 2026	Singapore FinTech Festival

What it means for you

• Using a Singapore exchange: check it in the MAS Financial Institutions Directory. Expect identity checks and no retail staking.
• Building in Singapore: work out whether your service is a regulated DPT service before launch; "offshore customers only" is no longer a way around licensing.
• Holding stablecoins: the coming "MAS-regulated" and "MAS-recognised" labels will be the simplest signal of which coins meet Singapore's standard. Compare the US and EU approaches in MiCA vs the GENIUS Act.