Singapore’s Central Bank Launches Digital Asset Pilot Program

Singapore’s central bank, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) will pilot an industry-wide collaborative project to explore the tokenization of financial assets and develop finance infrastructure. “The way to approach Web 3.0 is to keep an open mind. We must pierce through both the hubris and the veil of suspicion, to understand the potentially transformative underlying technologies. Let us not throw out the baby with the bath water,” Deputy Prime Minister Heng Swee Keat said on Tuesday. DPM Heng was speaking at the opening of the Asia Tech x Singapore Summit 2022, a regional technology-focused conference. Dubbed Project Guardian, it will test the feasibility of applications around asset tokenization and DeFi. The primary objective would also be to manage risks for financial stability and integrity. The pilot will be led by DBS, JPMorgan, and Marketnode, a digital markets infrastructure operator that is a joint venture between Singapore Exchange and Temasek. The project will create a permissioned liquidity pool comprising tokenized bonds and deposits. It aims to carry out secured borrowing and lending on a public blockchain-based network through the execution of smart contracts. With this initiative, MAS has become one of the few major regulators that are exploring digital assets. If successful, it might further bolster the position of Singapore on the global financial hub map.The post Singapore’s Central Bank Launches Di...