Today in crypto, Singapore’s central bank has set a June 30 deadline for local crypto firms targeting overseas markets to halt operations or face steep penalties, including fines of almost $200,000, South Korea’s crypto scene will gain no matter who wins a snap election, and the TON blockchain experienced a brief downtime.
Singapore Orders Local Crypto Firms to Cease Overseas Activity by June 30
Singapore’s central bank has set a deadline of June 30 for local crypto service providers to stop offering digital token (DT) services to overseas markets.
The directive came from the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s (MAS) response to industry feedback on its proposed regulatory framework for Digital Token Service Providers (DSTPs) under its Financial Services and Markets Act of 2022 (FSM Act).
MAS stated that no transitional arrangements will be made for local DTSPs providing services abroad. It said that any Singapore-incorporated company, individual or partnership that provides DT services outside Singapore must either cease operations or obtain a license when the DTSP provisions come into force by the end of June.
“DTSPs which are subject to a licensing requirement under section 137 of the FSM Act must suspend or cease carrying on a business of providing DT services outside Singapore by 30 June 2025,” MAS wrote.
Under Section 137 of the FSM Act, Singapore-based businesses are presumed to be operating from Singapore and are thus subject to licensing. This includes companies whose overseas token-related activities are not their primary business activity.
Companies found violating the laws will be subject to hefty fines of up to 250,000 Singaporean dollars ($200,000) and imprisonment of up to three years.
South Korea Crypto Industry Wins No Matter Election Outcome
South Korea’s crypto scene will gain either way in the country’s presidential elections slated for June 3, as both major candidates have run on pro-crypto platforms, pledged to ease regulations and expand crypto access.
South Koreans will elect a new president in a snap election to replace Yoon Suk-yeol, who was impeached and removed from office over his attempt to impose martial law in December.
The two major parties contesting the election are the center-left Democratic Party and the staunchly conservative People Power Party. Polls show Democratic Party nominee Lee Jae-myung is ahead, with 49% favouring Lee, while 36% said they prefer People Power Party nominee Kim Moon-soo.
Lee wants to allow South Korea’s $884 billion national pension fund to invest in crypto and has called for a won-backed stablecoin, while Kim has pledged to ease regulations and expand crypto adoption.
Both have backed legalizing spot crypto exchange-traded funds.
South Korea has one of the world’s most active crypto markets, and daily trading volumes on crypto exchanges sometimes exceed the country’s major stock indexes, with user numbers recently surpassing 16 million.
TON Blockchain Back Online Following Brief Network Outage
The Open Network (TON) is back online following a brief outage on June 1 that was attributed to an error in the masterchain dispatch queue.
Representatives for the layer-1 blockchain network announced the issue at 12:51:00 UTC but resolved the issue roughly 40 minutes after it was discovered, quickly restoring network services. TON maintainers and developers confirmed in a Telegram post:
“A quick fix was released, and updating only a few masterchain validators was sufficient to resume block production. The incident was related to an error in the processing of the masterchain dispatch queue.”
The incident reflects the issues that can arise from the increasing sophistication and significant network traffic of high-throughput and next-generation blockchains.
