Singapore is Shaping Up To Become an ICO Hub
In light of the ban of all ICOs within China, Startups looking to launch an ICO within South East Asia and beyond are turning their heads towards Singapore and it’s not hard to see why.
Most notable of the lot, the startup TenX, whose token sale raised a whopping US$80M in it’s Initial Coin Offering, Golem a startup, coined the “AirBnB of Computing” which raised US$9M in it’s ICO.
While other startups have launched ICOs based in Singapore raising anywhere between $1M and US$15M completely overshadowing any neighbouring countries in the South East Asian countries in general seed round investments.
For the same reason Singapore has been attractive for Startups and business in general, all along. Singapore’s tax structure has always been relatively low, ranging from 0%-20% Max.
Yes I did say 0%. Small businesses who do not earn an excess of SGD$500K or less basically fly under the radar and short of declaring your taxes, the business would be tax-free.
Singapore has a policy of heavily funding it’s thriving SME(500 employees or less) community. 50% of Singapore’s GDP is generated from SMEs and the Singapore government regularly looks into funding schemes and government grants for small and medium sized companies.
A newly incorporated company in Singapore will immediately find themself applicable to more than $100K worth of possible government grants which they may apply for immediately.
The Singapore Government, through it’ Monetary Authority, has launched programs supporting the Fintech community specifically. In just one of the initiatives, US$166M was allocated for the development and growth of Fintech startups and innovation.
The key word here is minimal. Though Bitcoin, Ethereum and the lot, are considered unregulated assets by the Singapore government, it is not free of regulation.
Singapore has chosen to diverge from US SEC Rulings such that ICOs will not be subjected to the “Howey Test” to be determined whether or not it is a security.
In a statement made by the Monetary Authority of Singapore’s official Statement :
“Where digital tokens fall within the definition of securities in the SFA, issuers of such tokens would be required to lodge and register a prospectus with MAS prior to the offer of such tokens, unless exempted. Issuers or intermediaries of such tokens would also be subject to licensing requirements under the SFA and Financial Advisers Act (Cap. 110)”
Singapore, however, has diverted from SEC rulings in that ICOs within Singapore will not be subjected to the Howey test in order to be identified as securities.
Singapore is making a clear statement on the issue of ICOs. It is supportive, but knowing full well it cannot go completely unregulated, all while being relatively lax when it comes to regulation as there are is still very much gray area and unknowns when it comes to ICOs.
Singapore already has initiatives in the works towards the application of Distributed Ledger Technology.
Singapore announced in May, it’s own plans to launch Singapore’s own tokenized Singapore Dollar based of the Ethereum Blockchain, under the initiative name “Project Ubin”.
With the professional services of consulting firm Delloite, they have completed a successful trial of the project and are in the works of Phase 2 of the project.
Short of regulatory and governmental policies, at the end of the day, what it boils down to, is the people. And in that regard, the Blockchain community is growing rapidly. With a slew of events and seminars being hosted amost on a weekly basis and conventions such as the upcoming event Block Show Asia 2017, the community is definitely thriving.
With less regulatory fears and financially supportive government, makes for Singapore to be an overall, amazing place for ICO startups to flock to.
With such favourable condition for companies intending to launch an ICO including the government's own interest and initiatives around Blockchain Technology, Singapore looks like a strong contender to become the “ICO Haven of The East”, matching it’s European contender, Switzerland.
Though this is self-vote, I'm an sincere in my calling out to #untalented community to have a look at the work I am putting out and maybe read my story of my "Leap of Faith" with Steemit .
God Speed Brethren.