Binance launched a feature to skirt Singapore’s ban – and then removed it

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Hello readers,

Here’s an interesting stat to start off the first day of your work week: In this year alone, the Cryptocurrency subreddit has grown nearly 300%, from 1.2 million subscribers in January 2021 to over 3.4 million subscribers today. The group gained more subscribers in the past eight months than in its first eight years.

Cryptocurrency is on a watermelon sugar high, and one of the most popular cryptocurrency exchanges globally is Binance. Last week, Singapore’s financial regulator carried out a series of moves that put the firm in a tough spot. In response, Binance quietly launched a feature to sidestep these issues – but later removed it.

Today we look at,

• What’s up with Binance’s new feature?
• A startup partners with its country’s largest bank to launch a property app
• Other newsy highlights such as Temasek marking a Philippine investment platform as a scam and Indian direct-to-consumer player BoAt planning to go public

PREMIUM SUMMARY

Revealing Binance’s new feature

Binance had a rough week. First, the firm’s global platform was placed on an Investor Alert Watch list by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). Then, MAS barred Binance from providing payment services to Singapore residents. While the crypto exchange announced that it would take steps to comply with MAS’ orders by September 10, Tech in Asia found that the company had rolled out – and then removed – an obscure feature that would have allowed Singapore residents to circumvent the ban.

• The feature… is a placeholder currency called “Local” that would have allowed users to trade at local exchange rates – in this case using the Singapore dollars – without specifying exactly which currency they were dealing in.
• Pulling the plug: With the new feature, Binance’s payment services might still have been available to Singaporean users through the placeholder currency. However, the feature has been disabled as of September 10, 12 pm.
• Another loophole: However, Binance users in Singapore aren’t giving up. They have discovered that they can still transact on the platform using the Brunei dollar, which shares the same exchange rate as the Singapore dollar.

Read more: Obscure Binance feature may let users skirt Singapore ban

STARTUP SPOTLIGHT

A startup partners with its country’s largest bank to launch a property app