Singapore’s senior minister and the chairman of the central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), says there should be just “one regulatory system” for both crypto and traditional finance. In addition, he stressed that regulators should provide “ultra clarity as to what’s an unregulated market,” so investors are aware that they go in at their own risk.

‘One Regulatory System’

Tharman Shanmugaratnam, Singapore’s senior minister who is also the chairman of the country’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), talked about cryptocurrency regulation during a panel discussion with other regulators and bankers at the World Economic Forum last week.

Shanmugaratnam previously served as Singapore’s deputy prime minister and the minister for finance. He is also currently the coordinating minister for social policies and adviser to the prime minister on economic policies.

“Something is very clear, whether it’s crypto or traditional finance, you gotta regulate for things like money laundering. So that’s very clear,” he began.

“But beyond that, if you have to think about regulating crypto the same way we regulate banks, insurance companies, and so on — for prudential reasons, for financial stability reasons — I think we’ve got to take a step back and ask the basic philosophical question,” the minister explained. “Does that legitimize something that’s inherently purely speculative, and in fact, slightly…