Coinbase entered the Singapore market by getting approval from the central bank to offer its crypto services in the city-state.

The largest cryptocurrency exchange in the United States has obtained the so-called approval in principle, which the central bank implemented last year for cryptocurrency companies.

The approval will allow crypto exchanges like Coinbase to offer services that people and institutions can use. Still, the central bank will regulate them under its Payment Services Law.

Coinbase has said that this has been a “significant milestone”. He further added that the company currently has nearly 100 employees and has been building a strong presence in the Southeast Asian state. The largest volume of Singapore hires are product engineers, according to Coinbase.

“We see Singapore as a strategic market and global hub for Web3 innovation,” said Hassan Ahmed, Coinbase’s regional director for Southeast Asia.

Coinbase is among only 17 crypto firms to have received approvals and licenses in principle from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) after an elaborate due diligence process that is still ongoing. There were around 180 crypto companies that applied for a crypto payments license to MAS in 2020 under a new regime.

Competitors Crypto.com and DBS Vickers, the brokerage agency run by Singapore’s largest bank DBS, have also established their business in Singapore in addition to Coinbase.

Although Singapore has become welcoming to outside companies related to digital asset services, its local crypto hedge fund Three Arrows Capital (3AC) began liquidation in June after it failed to meet hundreds of millions of dollars in obligations.

However, Singapore’s positive move towards opening up to crypto businesses has attracted companies from China, India and elsewhere in recent years, making it a major hub in Asia.

In its recent developments, Coinbase announced the expansion of its services in Australia to make access to the crypto economy easier and more secure, introducing three services to its Australian customers, Blockchain.News reported.

the digital currency exchangewhich first entered the Australian market in 2016, said it would introduce a PayID feature for its Australian users.

The announcement was revealed in a blog post: “First, we are introducing PayID as a way for Australians to top up their Coinbase accounts using direct transfers in Australian dollars.” Coinbase said in the announcement.”

The cryptocurrency exchange’s cloud protocol has also partnered with decentralized Oracle network Chainlink Labs to launch an NFT minimum price feed service.

The partnership will introduce the lowest NFT price feed on the Coinbase cloud service, allowing developers to access real-time NFT prices to build applications such as NFT lending markets, such as NFT indices.

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