Singapore Crypto License Calculator
Determine which Singapore crypto license tier applies to your business based on your monthly transaction volume. This tool shows you the requirements, costs, and timeline for each applicable license tier.
Note: This calculator provides general guidance based on the information in the article. Consult with a legal expert for specific advice.
On June 30, 2025, Singapore shut the door on crypto exchanges that thought they could operate from its shores while serving only overseas clients. No more loopholes. No more gray zones. If you’re running a crypto exchange and you’re based in Singapore, you now need a license - period. The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) didn’t ask nicely. It didn’t give a grace period. It just changed the rules overnight, and thousands of businesses had to scramble to comply or shut down.
What Changed in June 2025?
Before June 2025, a crypto company could set up its headquarters in Singapore, hire local staff, and use Singapore’s banking infrastructure - but if it only served customers outside Singapore, it didn’t need a license. That’s how some firms slipped through the cracks. They weren’t breaking any laws, exactly. They were just exploiting a gap. The MAS called it regulatory arbitrage. And they put an end to it. The new framework, called the Digital Token Service Provider (DTSP) regime, is part of the Financial Services and Markets Act (FSMA) that took full effect on June 30, 2025. It’s not an update. It’s a complete overhaul. Now, any company that offers crypto trading, custody, or exchange services - even if it has zero local customers - must get licensed by MAS. There’s no exception. No exemption. No ‘we’re just a tech startup’ excuse.The Two License Tiers You Need to Know
Singapore doesn’t have one license. It has two, based on how big you are and how much money you move.- Standard Payment Institution License: For businesses processing up to SGD 3 million in transactions per month. You need at least SGD 100,000 in paid-up capital. This is for smaller exchanges, peer-to-peer platforms, or crypto payment processors.
- Major Payment Institution License: For anyone moving more than SGD 3 million monthly. You need SGD 250,000 in capital, plus deeper compliance, real-time transaction monitoring, annual external audits, and stricter internal controls.
What MAS Actually Demands
Getting a license isn’t about filling out a form. It’s about proving you’re built like a bank. MAS doesn’t just want your business plan. They want your entire operating system.- AML/KYC Policy: You must verify every customer’s identity with government-issued ID, proof of address, and biometric checks if needed. You can’t just ask for a selfie and a passport scan. You need to cross-check against global sanctions lists and PEP databases.
- Transaction Monitoring: Your system must detect patterns like rapid deposits and withdrawals, layering, or structuring. If someone sends $50,000 in 10 different Bitcoin addresses and pulls it out in Ethereum within an hour - your system must flag it.
- Internal Risk Controls: You need documented procedures for everything: how you store private keys, how you handle customer funds, how you respond to hacks, how you train staff on fraud.
- Annual Audits: Every year, an independent third party must audit your financials, your compliance systems, and your security protocols. MAS will review the report. They’ll ask questions. If they find gaps, your license is at risk.
- Capital Proof: You can’t just say you have SGD 250,000. You need bank statements, audited financials, or a letter from a licensed financial institution confirming you have the funds available.
How Long Does It Take?
If you’re a small operator with clean records and solid documentation, you might get your Standard License in 3 to 6 months. That’s if you hire a local compliance expert who’s done this before. For a Major License? Plan for 6 to 12 months. Why so long? MAS reviews every document line by line. They’ll ask for clarifications. They’ll request revisions. They’ll come back with 20 pages of follow-up questions. One firm spent eight months just getting their KYC workflow approved. And there’s no shortcut. You can’t pay extra to move faster. MAS doesn’t offer fast-track options. If your application is incomplete, it gets rejected - and you start over.How Does Singapore Compare?
Some countries ban crypto. Others let anyone set up shop. Singapore sits in the middle - strict, but fair.- EU (MiCA): Has similar rules, but gives firms years to adapt. Singapore gave zero grace period.
- USA: Patchwork of state rules. You might need 40 licenses just to operate nationally. Singapore gives you one national license.
- Switzerland: Requires millions in capital. Singapore’s SGD 250,000 is far more accessible.
- Hong Kong: Just launched its own regime in 2024. Singapore still leads in clarity and enforcement.
Who’s Getting Hit the Hardest?
Small exchanges that thought they could fly under the radar are disappearing. Many were retail-focused, with low capital and minimal compliance teams. When the deadline hit, they either folded or moved to jurisdictions with looser rules - like the UAE or El Salvador. Even some well-funded startups struggled. One Singapore-based platform, which had raised $15 million in venture funding, couldn’t pass MAS’s audit because their transaction monitoring tool couldn’t flag cross-chain wash trading. They spent $400,000 on a new system - and still didn’t get approved on the first try. The biggest surprise? Many firms that thought they were safe because they only served overseas customers got caught. MAS doesn’t care where your users live. If your servers are in Singapore, you’re under their jurisdiction.
What Happens If You Don’t Apply?
The consequences are severe. MAS doesn’t just shut you down. They make examples.- Fines up to SGD 1 million for unlicensed operations.
- Personal liability for directors and compliance officers.
- Public naming and shaming on MAS’s website.
- Bank accounts frozen - even if you’re not doing anything illegal.
Is It Worth It?
For big players, yes. Singapore’s license is a gold stamp. It opens doors to institutional investors, banks, and global partners who won’t touch unregulated platforms. Exchanges like Bybit and Bitget now use their Singapore licenses to market themselves as ‘MAS-regulated’ - and it’s working. For small operators? It’s a high wall. The legal fees alone can cost $100,000-$300,000. You need full-time compliance staff. You need upgraded tech. You need ongoing audits. If you’re making $500,000 a year in revenue, you might spend more on compliance than you earn. The reality? Singapore isn’t trying to be the biggest crypto hub. It’s trying to be the safest. If you’re building a business that’s transparent, secure, and compliant - you’ll thrive. If you’re trying to cut corners - you won’t survive.What’s Next?
MAS has said they’re not done. They’re already looking at DeFi protocols, NFT marketplaces, and stablecoin issuers. Next on the list? Tokenized assets. The message is clear: if it touches finance, it touches MAS. The message to operators? Get compliant now. Don’t wait for the next announcement. Don’t hope the rules will soften. They won’t. Singapore’s crypto future isn’t wild and free. It’s clean, controlled, and carefully regulated.Do I need a license if I only trade crypto for myself in Singapore?
No. Personal crypto trading for your own account doesn’t require a license. The rules apply only to businesses offering crypto services to others - like exchanges, custodians, or payment processors. If you’re buying and selling Bitcoin on your own, you’re not regulated.
Can a foreign company get a Singapore crypto license?
Yes, but only if they establish a legal entity in Singapore. You can’t apply as a foreign branch. You need a local company registered with ACRA (Accounting and Corporate Regulatory Authority), with a physical office and at least one local director. The business must be operated from within Singapore.
What happens if my license application is rejected?
You can appeal or reapply. But MAS doesn’t give feedback on every rejection. Many firms hire legal consultants to review the rejection letter and fix gaps before resubmitting. It’s common to apply two or three times before approval. There’s no limit to how many times you can apply, but each submission costs money and time.
Can I operate without a license if I don’t have Singapore customers?
No. Since June 30, 2025, the DTSP regime applies to all crypto service providers operating from Singapore - regardless of where their customers are located. If your servers, team, or headquarters are in Singapore, you need a license, even if you serve only users in Nigeria, Brazil, or Canada.
How much does it cost to get licensed?
The MAS application fee is SGD 1,500 for Standard and SGD 5,000 for Major licenses. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. Most firms spend between $100,000 and $500,000 on legal help, compliance software, audits, staffing, and system upgrades before they even submit. The total cost can easily exceed $1 million for larger exchanges.
garrett goggin
November 17, 2025 AT 14:42Oh wow, MAS just turned Singapore into the financial NSA of crypto. Next they’ll require your crypto wallet to have a GPS tracker and a mandatory daily selfie with your hardware wallet. I bet they’re already drafting a law that says you can’t even hold Bitcoin unless you’ve attended a 12-hour seminar on AML compliance while holding a copy of the FSMA. This isn’t regulation - it’s digital feudalism. And the worst part? They’re charging $500K to play their game. Meanwhile, in El Salvador, I’m buying Bitcoin with my lunch money and no one asks for my birth certificate.
They call it ‘trustworthy.’ I call it a velvet cage.
PS: If you’re still using a centralized exchange in 2025, you’re not a trader - you’re a tenant in someone else’s bank.
PPS: MAS will audit your dreams next. Don’t sleep.
Bill Henry
November 18, 2025 AT 01:00ok so i just read this and i think its kinda wild that they just pulled the plug like that. i mean, i get it, they wanna be safe and all, but like… did they even talk to the small guys first? i know a dude who runs a tiny p2p thing from his apartment in singapore and he just lost everything. no warning, no help, just ‘bye lol’. hope he finds a new place to live. maybe thailand? idk. but this feels a little harsh.
Jess Zafarris
November 18, 2025 AT 18:05Let’s be real - this isn’t about protecting consumers. It’s about controlling the narrative. MAS didn’t close a loophole. They closed the door on innovation disguised as arbitrage. The fact that they demand real-time monitoring of cross-chain wash trading? That’s not compliance - that’s surveillance with a corporate logo. And yet, somehow, the same regulators who demand this level of detail still can’t catch insider trading at DBS. Irony is a feature, not a bug.
But here’s the twist: the firms that survived? They’re now the most valuable. Because in crypto, trust isn’t free. It’s expensive. And Singapore just made trust the only currency that matters.
jesani amit
November 19, 2025 AT 13:18bro this is actually really good info. i was just thinking about moving my small exchange from india to singapore because it felt easier, but now i see it’s like climbing a mountain with no rope. the capital reqs are crazy, and the audits? man, i don’t even have a full-time accountant. but hey, if you can make it through this, your license is like a golden ticket. i’m gonna study this again tomorrow and maybe hire a compliance consultant. thanks for breaking it down so clear.
Peter Rossiter
November 21, 2025 AT 06:57License fees are peanuts. The real cost is your soul. You spend 8 months filling out forms so some bureaucrat can tell you your KYC flow is ‘not granular enough’. Meanwhile, your devs are crying in the corner because they had to rewrite the entire transaction engine to track wallet address changes in real time. And for what? So you can say ‘MAS regulated’ on your landing page while your users still get hacked because you skimped on cold storage. This isn’t safety. It’s theater.
Mike Gransky
November 21, 2025 AT 10:19The comparison to the EU’s MiCA is spot on. Singapore didn’t just set the bar - they buried it under concrete. And yet, somehow, the biggest institutional players are lining up. Why? Because when you’re managing billions, you don’t want to be caught in a jurisdiction that changes rules every six months. Singapore says ‘this is it’ - and they mean it. That’s rare. That’s valuable. That’s why the smart money is moving in, even if the small guys are getting crushed.
Ella Davies
November 22, 2025 AT 21:43I’ve worked with three crypto firms trying to get licensed here. The process is brutal, but it’s not arbitrary. MAS doesn’t care if you’re a startup or a hedge fund. They care if you can prove you won’t let $10 million vanish because someone clicked a phishing link. The audit reports I’ve seen? They’re terrifying. One firm had a spreadsheet for their private key backups. That’s not a system. That’s a suicide note. If you’re building something real, this is the price of credibility.
Henry Lu
November 24, 2025 AT 17:30Of course the little guys are getting wiped out. They never should’ve thought they could play in the big leagues with a Shopify store and a WhatsApp group. If you’re running a crypto exchange and your ‘compliance team’ is your cousin who watched a YouTube video on AML, you deserve to fail. Singapore didn’t make the rules too hard - you were just too dumb to understand them. Stop whining. Go build something that doesn’t need a license because it’s decentralized. Or get a real job.
nikhil .m445
November 26, 2025 AT 10:03Dear all, I am from India and I am very happy to see that Singapore is taking this very seriously. In India, we have no rules, everyone is scamming, no one is punished. Here in Singapore, they are serious. Even if you are small, you must follow rules. This is good for world. I think all countries should follow Singapore. Why? Because if you are in Singapore, you must be professional. No excuse. No ‘I am just startup’. You must be bank. This is correct. I am proud of MAS. 👍👏
Rick Mendoza
November 28, 2025 AT 02:06They’re calling it a ‘complete overhaul’ but really it’s just another government power grab. No grace period? No exceptions? That’s not regulation - that’s tyranny dressed in a suit. And the fact that they’re now going after DeFi next? That’s the real red flag. They don’t want to regulate crypto. They want to own it. And if you’re not on their payroll, you’re not allowed to play.
Lori Holton
November 28, 2025 AT 18:05Let us not be naive. The MAS did not act out of benevolence. They acted out of fear - fear that Singapore’s reputation as a financial hub would be tarnished by the association with unregulated, anonymous, and potentially illicit crypto activity. This is not about protecting customers. It is about protecting the brand. And if that means crushing small innovators and turning the city-state into a sterile, sanitized, corporate-approved crypto zoo - so be it. The price of prestige is always paid in blood. And in this case, the blood belongs to the entrepreneurs.
Bruce Murray
November 30, 2025 AT 17:55It’s not perfect, but it’s the best we’ve got right now. I know it’s tough for the small guys, but imagine if this was the Wild West and every exchange got hacked. People lose life savings. Families break apart. Singapore’s approach is heavy-handed, sure - but it’s also the only one that actually stops the chaos before it starts. Maybe the system isn’t fair, but it’s honest. And in crypto, honesty is the rarest currency of all.
Barbara Kiss
November 30, 2025 AT 23:58There’s a quiet beauty in Singapore’s approach. It doesn’t pretend to be libertarian. It doesn’t pretend to be revolutionary. It just says: if you want to touch finance, you must be worthy of it. There’s no romance here - no ‘decentralization’ slogans, no ‘fuck the system’ bravado. Just cold, hard, unyielding standards. And maybe that’s the real rebellion. Not in breaking rules, but in refusing to let the system rot from within. The small exchanges that left? They didn’t flee regulation. They fled maturity. And maturity, in the end, always wins.
Aryan Juned
December 2, 2025 AT 02:34OMG this is wild 😱 I just heard a guy from Singapore say he lost his entire business because MAS said his KYC system didn’t track ‘wallet address changes’ 😭 like… what even is that?! I mean, I get it, but come on! He had 5 employees and a coffee machine as his server room 😂 now he’s selling his laptop on Carousell to pay rent. Meanwhile, Bybit is out here flexing their MAS license like it’s a trophy 🏆 #CryptoRegulationIsAScaryGame #SingaporeNoMercy 🤡
Nataly Soares da Mota
December 2, 2025 AT 08:53What we’re witnessing here is the institutionalization of cryptographic sovereignty. MAS isn’t merely licensing exchanges - they’re embedding regulatory ontology into the architecture of digital finance. The DTSP regime is a performative act of epistemic control: it redefines legitimacy through compliance as a technical artifact, not a social contract. The capital requirements, the audit trails, the real-time monitoring - these aren’t safeguards. They’re protocols of subjugation. The decentralized ethos? Eradicated. The blockchain? Now a state-monitored ledger. Welcome to the financial panopticon.
Grace Craig
December 3, 2025 AT 20:54It is imperative to underscore that the Monetary Authority of Singapore has, in its wisdom, enacted a regulatory framework that is not only rigorous but also impeccably structured. The absence of any grace period is not an oversight - it is a deliberate assertion of sovereign authority over financial infrastructure. To suggest that this is overly burdensome is to misunderstand the nature of fiduciary responsibility. One does not operate a payment system with the casualness of a garage sale. This is not draconian. This is dignified. And those who cannot meet these standards? They were never meant to be in the system to begin with.
Ryan Hansen
December 5, 2025 AT 19:50I’ve been following this whole thing since last year. The thing people don’t talk about is how much it’s already changed the talent pool. Before June 2025, Singapore was full of crypto devs who just wanted to build cool stuff. Now? You’ve got compliance officers with law degrees running the show. The engineers are either gone or stuck writing audit reports. I talked to a guy who used to code smart contracts - now he’s filling out Form DTSP-7B about ‘transaction pattern thresholds’. The soul of crypto is being replaced by Excel sheets. And honestly? I don’t know if that’s progress or just… sad.
Derayne Stegall
December 6, 2025 AT 06:28THIS IS WHY WE WIN 💪🔥 Singapore didn’t wait for permission - they set the standard. If you’re building something real, you don’t complain about the bar. You lift heavier. The firms that made it through? They’re now the most trusted in Asia. That license? It’s not a cost. It’s a marketing bomb. You don’t need to be the biggest. You just need to be the cleanest. And guess what? The institutions are lining up. This isn’t the end of crypto. It’s the beginning of the real one. Let the amateurs leave. The adults are just getting started. 🚀 #MASRegulated #CryptoIsHereToStay