Coinbase has said it has received Singapore central bank's approval to offer payment services in the country. Coinbase, the largest crypto exchange in the United States, said this was a significant milestone. "We see Singapore as a strategic market and a global hub for Web3 innovation," Hassan Ahmed, Coinbase's regional director for Southeast Asia, said, according to Channel News Asia.
Coinbase has about 100 employees in Singapore. The 'in-principle' approval in Singapore means that Coinbase will be regulated by the central bank under its Payment Services Act, making it possible for individuals and institutions use digital payment token services. Singapore's central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, began offering this approval to cryptocurency firms last year.
Milestone For Coinbase
The approval is a milestone for Coinbase as it is among only 17 crypto firms out of a total 180 companies that applied for the Singapore payments licence. Some of the other companies that got the license are Crypto.com and DBS Vickers, according to CNA.
Reports showed last month that Coinbase was recovering from the mass layoffs that happened last year though the company reported a massive loss in both revenue and profit in the June quarter. The net losses amounted to $1.1 billion while revenue declined from $2.033 billion to $803 million from a year-ago quarter.
However, Coinbase's full-time employee count stood at 4,977 at the end of the June quarter (Q2), which marked a 33 percent rise from the 3,730 workers it had at the end of Q4 2021.
Stiff Competition
While Coinbase is one of the most valuable companies in crypto, it has been facing stiff competition from other exchanges like FTX and Binance, which have been aggressively hiring in recent months.
In June, the cryptocurrency exchange laid off as many as 1,100 employees as the crypto winter began shaking up the industry. The June job cut accounted for 18 percent of the company's workforce.
