Crypto firm Ripple gets in-principle payments license in Singapore

Blockchain firm Ripple said Thursday it has received regulatory approval in principle to operate in Singapore, in a rare moment of good news for the cryptocurrency industry globally as it faces policy tightening back home in the United States.

Ripple said it had received preliminary approval for a major payment institution license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore, the country’s central bank.

The license will allow Ripple to offer regulated digital payment token products and services and scale up cross-border transfers of XRP, a cryptocurrency with which the company is closely associated, among its customers, being banks and financial institutions.

XRP was trading around 50 cents late Wednesday evening.

Ripple, a San Francisco-based financial technology company, is mostly known for XRP as well as its interbank messaging services based on the blockchain, the distributed ledger technology that powers several cryptocurrencies.

The company’s on-demand liquidity service uses XRP as a kind of “bridge” between currencies, which it says allows payment providers and banks to process cross-border transactions much faster than they could on legacy payment rails.

But Ripple also operates an international blockchain-based messaging system called RippleNet to facilitate bulk transfers of funds between banks and other financial institutions, similar to the global interbank messaging system SWIFT.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has charged Ripple, co-founder Christian Larsen, and CEO Brad Garlinghouse with conducting an illegal securities offering that raised more than $1.3 billion through XRP sales.

Ripple denies the SEC’s allegations, arguing that XRP is a currency, not a security, subject to strict rules.

Singapore is one of the largest currency corridors from which Ripple sends funds across borders using XRP, the company said in a press release.

Ripple said the majority of Ripple’s global on-demand liquidity transactions flow through Singapore, which serves as the company’s regional headquarters in the Asia Pacific region.

Ripple has doubled its staff in Singapore over the past year across key functions including business development, compliance and finance, and plans to continue to increase its presence there.

MAS, the Singapore financial regulator, was not immediately available for comment when contacted by CNBC.

The central bank was previously in the news for blasting Three Arrows Capital, the cryptocurrency hedge fund that collapsed after betting billions on the failed terraUSD coin, for misleading its move to the British Virgin Islands in 2021.

The Asian megacity has developed a reputation over the years for being the most tech-financial and crypto-friendly jurisdiction, opening its doors to a number of big companies including local banking giant DBS, British fintech firm Revolut, and Singapore-based Crypto exchange. com.

Garlinghouse is scheduled to speak at the Point Zero Forum in Zurich, Switzerland, next Wednesday to “discuss the resurgence of innovation in digital assets through thoughtful investment and regulation,” the company said.

It came on the heels of Ripple’s $250 million purchase of Metaco, a crypto custody services firm, to expand its reach in the Swiss market and diversify away from its US home recently, Ripple’s Garlinghouse said the company will spend more than $200 million in legal fees by the time which ends her legal battle with the Securities and Exchange Commission.