News, data and analysis on tokenized assets, market design and digital economic systems.
Digital payment token services have been licensed since 2020, but the single-currency stablecoin framework finalised in 2023 still has no enabling legislation, so issuance continues to be regulated under existing law.
Digital payment token services have been licensed under the Payment Services Act since January 2020, and the Financial Services and Markets Act 2022 extended the perimeter to Singapore-incorporated firms serving only overseas customers, with that digital token service provider regime commencing on June 30, 2025. MAS finalised its single-currency stablecoin framework on August 15, 2023, requiring full reserve backing in low-risk assets, redemption at par within five business days, capital and disclosure requirements, and restricting a MAS-regulated label to SGD and G10 currency pegs. The enabling legislation had not been introduced as of July 2026, so issuance remains regulated under existing law. On November 13, 2025 MAS managing director Chia Der Jiun said the authority was ready to begin drafting stablecoin legislation and planned to issue tokenised bills to primary dealers in 2026, settled in Singapore dollar wholesale central bank money. Tokenization work continues through Project Guardian and the Borderless Settlement of Liabilities and Obligations initiative announced in 2025.
| Framework | Status | Date | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| Payment Services Act 2019: digital payment token services | In force | 28 January 2020 | Licensing of buying, selling, exchange, transfer, custody and brokering of digital payment tokens, with AML/CFT, technology risk and consumer access requirements. |
| Payment Services (Amendment) Act 2021 expanded DPT scope | In force | 4 April 2024 | Extends the regime to custody, transfer and cross-border money transfer services involving digital payment tokens. |
| Financial Services and Markets Act 2022: digital token service provider regime | In force | 30 June 2025 | Licenses Singapore-incorporated firms providing digital token services solely to customers outside Singapore. |
| MAS single-currency stablecoin (SCS) regulatory framework | Pending | 15 August 2023 | Finalised policy: full reserve backing in cash, cash equivalents and short-dated sovereign debt, par redemption within five business days, base capital and audit requirements, MAS-regulated stablecoin label. Enabling legislation not yet introduced as of July 2026. |
| MAS guidelines on provision of digital payment token services to the public | In force | 1 January 2024 | Restricts retail incentives, credit and leverage, and requires risk-awareness assessments. |
| MAS notice PSN02 on AML/CFT for digital payment token service providers (travel rule) | In force | 28 January 2020 | Originator and beneficiary information requirements for value transfers, with no de minimis threshold for DPT transfers. |
| Project Guardian asset tokenization initiative | In force | 31 May 2022 | Industry pilots on tokenized fixed income, funds and foreign exchange, with fixed income and funds frameworks published in 2023 and 2024. |
| Borderless Settlement of Liabilities and Obligations (BLOOM) initiative | In force | 13 November 2025 | MAS-convened work on cross-border settlement using tokenized bank liabilities; announced alongside plans to issue tokenised bills to primary dealers in 2026 settled in SGD wholesale CBDC. |
Every development we have evidenced under Singapore, newest first.
The three banks said they had completed the first live domestic interbank Singapore dollar transactions using tokenized deposits over Swift's ledger. Their release describes the ledger as an orchestration layer that matched and netted the obligations before final settlement ran through existing systems, and gives no value, count, fee or client.
The two banks said on 7 September 2026 that they had completed what they call the first successful weekend United States dollar payment between Singapore and the United States using tokenized deposits over Swift's ledger, executed on Saturday 5 September and settling in minutes against an industry norm of up to two business days. No amount was disclosed.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore published consultation paper P015-2026 on 1 September 2026, proposing a stablecoin issuance licence whose holder may do nothing else, a prohibition on paying interest, a designation regime for systemic stablecoins with power to have them delisted, and a reversal of its 2023 bar on multi-jurisdictional issuance. Comments close on 16 October.
MAS published the final features of a regulatory framework for single-currency stablecoins pegged to the Singapore dollar or a G10 currency and issued in Singapore. Issuers were required to hold low-risk, highly liquid reserve assets and to return par value to holders within five business days of a redemption request.
The Monetary Authority of Singapore announced the first phase of Project Ubin, a proof of concept placing a tokenized Singapore dollar on a distributed ledger for interbank payments, run with R3 and a group of banks. The phase concluded on 9 March 2017 and was followed by four further phases covering real-time gross settlement redesign, delivery versus payment and cross-border payment versus payment.
DBS, OCBC and UOB moved Singapore dollars between each other as tokenized deposits, which is the first time a domestic interbank market has done it.
The two banks executed what they call the first successful weekend United States dollar payment between Singapore and New York using tokenized deposits over the Swift Digital Ledger, on Saturday 5 September 2026, settling in minutes against an…
MAS puts its 2023 framework into legislation with a licence class in which an issuer may not do banking or any other regulated business, may pay no interest, and may be designated systemic and ordered off Singapore's venues.
What issued, what settled, what the supervisors changed, with the numbers behind it and a note on what the numbers do not show. One email, Thursday mornings.
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