Malaysia's Securities Watchdog Plans Cryptocurrency Regulations

Malaysia's securities regulator has revealed it is planning a regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies.

Speaking yesterday at the SCxSC Digital Finance Conference in Kuala Lumpur, the chairman of Securities Commission Malaysia (SC), Tan Sri Ranjit Ajit Singh, explained that SC is working on "relevant regulations and guidelines" for functional use cases of digital assets. These include "secondary market trading of established cryptocurrency and digital assets" in the capital market, he said.

According to a report by Edge Markets, Ranjit indicated that SC is working closely with the country's central bank, Bank Negara Malaysia (BNM), to sketch out a framework on cryptocurrencies that it expects to finalize in the coming months.

He reportedly said:

"Together with BNM, we will look at the area carefully and as SC is in charge of the secondary market, we would craft regulations to ensure that the trading values have the right conditions in place for market integrity and investor projection purposes".

According to the report, Ranjit further said that various cryptocurrency exchanges have approached the regulator and that, once the framework is outlined, the SC would then see which exchanges are registered.

The SC chairman also revealed that his agency is working on a pilot project to explore distributed ledger technology (DLT) for unlisted and OTC markets.

Planned to boost digital innovation in Malaysia's capital markets, Ranjit said the findings from the pilot would be published as an "industry blueprint."

The news may mark a softening of the country's previous stance on the trading of cryptocurrencies. Just a month ago, the central bank indicated it make a decision on whether to ban the trading of cryptocurrencies "before the end of the year."