Singapore, with its strict protections and forward-looking digital landscape, is an attractive hub for many who want to start businesses in crypto. From exchanges to wallets to staking providers, here are 10 Singapore-based crypto businesses that you might want to keep tabs on!
1. RockX
RockX is a non-custodial staking provider and has recently launched an access node API portal as well. Founded in 2019, RockX quickly became Asia’s leading staking provider, providing staking services for all major Proof-of-Stake (PoS) blockchains, such as Ethereum 2.0, Solana, Polkadot, and more. Their access node API portal starts from $0 monthly and customised plans can be built around individual requirements.
2. Coinhako
Established in 2014, Coinhako is one of the largest crypto wallet providers in Asia. With Coinhako, you can buy, sell, trade crypto, and earn points while doing so. With a long track record of robust security and reliability, Coinhako is a favourite among beginners and expert crypto traders alike.
3. Kyber Network
According to their website, Kyber Network is a multi-chain crypto trading and liquidity hub that connects liquidity from different sources to enable trades at the best rates. The idea behind this is for Kyber to act as a sort of decentralised liquidity that will power decentralised apps (dApps), wallets, DeFi platforms, and more.
4. Crypto.com
Crypto.com needs no introduction, as their “Fortune Favours the Brave” campaign, featuring Matt Damon, took the world by storm in 2021. Founded in 2016, crypto.com has become a key player in the crypto space. Other than buying, selling and trading crypto, users can sign up for their Crypto.com Visa card and earn points, cashback and more by spending crypto through their card.
5. Nansen
Nansen enriches on-chain data with millions of wallet labels through blockchain analytics. Real-time alerts help crypto investors manage their portfolios and discover opportunities. Established in 2019, Nansen has become a leading blockchain analytics platform and is useful to anyone who wants to access on-chain data for the sake of managing their crypto portfolio.
6. Litecoin Foundation
The Litecoin Foundation is a non-profit organisation that supports the development of Litecoin, a mainstay name in crypto that’s been around since 2011. Litecoin, like Bitcoin, was created as an open-source, decentralised, peer-to-peer (P2P) currency. It is #21 in terms of market rank at the time of writing.
7. Zilliqa
Founded in 2017 by two researchers from the National University of Singapore (NUS), Zilliqa is a wallet and blockchain, powered by its native token, ZIL. It touts itself as the world’s first sharding-based blockchain, making it more scalable and eco-friendly than some other blockchains.
8. Cartesi
With Cartesi, blockchain scaling issues and high fees can be solved by utilising technologies such as Optimistic Rollups and sidechains. The Singapore-based project aims to increase a blockchain’s computational scalability by over 10,000x. Blockchain OS enables the use of mainstream tools and languages such as C++, Python, and SQLite, enabling users to develop much more sophisticated decentralised applications than they would otherwise be able to on layer-1. Read more on why a Blockchain OS is necessary here.
9. Alchemy Pay
The Alchemy Pay (ACH) platform unifies fiat and crypto economies for consumers, merchants, developers, and institutions across the globe. The payments solution provider was founded in Singapore in 2018, and has since partnered with many global institutions such as Shopify, checkout.com, Binance, Polygon, and more to bring crypto payments to mainstream use globally.
10. Cake DeFi
The Cake DeFi platform is a Singapore-based staking and lending platform with a liquidity pool that allows users to deposit and earn yield on a range of tokens. A custodial platform built around various DeFi products, Cake DeFi offers a suite of features such as staking, lending, and other yield-bearing DeFi-based activities. It is a simple, albeit centralised, way for crypto holders to generate some extra income on their holdings.
The Future of Crypto in Singapore
In light of the recent bear market, Singapore’s central banking authority, the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has vowed to clamp down on crypto and regulate it thoroughly. However, Singapore’s forward-looking nature means that it still wants to support the growth of blockchain technology and the useful innovations it will yield. The regulations put forth by MAS are merely to curb illegal monetary activity in Singapore through crypto.
Needless to say, Singapore has already played a great role in helping to grow the crypto industry, with many big players in the space having come from Singapore. Keeping a balance between healthy regulation and impeding innovation is not an easy task, but we believe Singapore can help grow legitimate crypto businesses by toeing that line.
