As Singapore authorities mull over crypto regulation, Singapore’s stock exchange today announced the listing of its first-ever cryptocurrency indices. Per a partnership with CryptoCompare, a UK-based cryptocurrency benchmarking site, Singapore Exchange (SGX) is listing two crypto indices through its four-year-old SGX iEdge index suite: the iEdge Bitcoin Index and the iEdge Ethereum Index. Crypt indices track the prices of different cryptocurrencies. Singapore’s central bank and financial regulator, the Monetary Authority of Singapore, is still working on crypto regulations.
Indices would help verify the price.
If a Singaporean business wants to create a product or investment vehicle around Bitcoin or Ethereum, the indices will help verify the price. One reason why you might not rely on publicly available sites like CoinMarketCap for such data is that regulators vet CryptoCompare’s index. The resultant precision is important for high-volume traders. Simon Karaban, Head of Index Services at SGX, said in a statement that as the world moves swiftly towards digitalization in the creation and accumulation of wealth, digital assets are increasingly being adopted by investors.
Earlier this year, regulators enacted a policy requiring crypto exchanges to obtain a license. However, in March, let some cryptocurrency companies, including Binance, Coinbase, and Gemini, operate in the country for six months without them, reported Sahil Kohli.
CryptoCompare’s crypto indices appear on other stock exchanges.
According to the TradingHours.com data, Singapore Exchange has a market cap of $585 billion, far less than the Tokyo Stock Exchange’s $5.66 trillion market cap or Shanghai’s $5.26 trillion, let alone the New York Stock Exchange’s $21 trillion. CryptoCompare’s crypto indices appear on other stock exchanges. In 2017, the Stuttgart Stock Exchange started listing ten indices: Ripple, IOTA, ZCash, and Monero. This year, CryptoCompare worked with Japan’s oldest brokerage firm, Nomura, index provider MV Index Solutions, and quantitative analysis company Intelligence Unit to get the NRI/IU Crypto-Asset Index off the ground.
