Japanese and Singaporean Regulators Unite to Launch Crypto Pilot Project

FSA and MAS Collaboration

On June 26, the Financial Services Authority (FSA) of Japan and the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announced a collaboration in which the former will be an observer in the latter’s “Project Guardian” initiative. This initiative involves the joint regulation and pilot testing of cryptocurrency projects. In this phase, the FSA’s involvement will be limited to an observer capacity.

Established in May 2022 by the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), Project Guardian is designed to evaluate the “feasibility of applications in asset tokenisation and DeFi” in compliance with relevant regulations. This project has four primary objectives: open and interoperable networks, trust anchors, asset tokenisation, and institutional-level DeFi protocols. One of the most noteworthy projects from this initiative is…

Meanwhile, HSBC, Marketnode, and UOB have completed a trial of a blockchain-based product, and UBS is investigating the possibility of issuing Variable Capital Company funds on digital asset networks. This is not the first time the FSA and MAS have worked together; in 2017, they created a framework to support innovation in their respective markets.

Crypto Regulations in Japan

The easing of crypto regulations in Japan has paved the way for this collaboration. On June 25th, Cointelegraph reported that Japan’s National Tax Agency had decided to exempt token issuers from a 30% tax on unrealized capital gains. Earlier in the year, Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida suggested that DAOs and NFTs could be utilized to help the government’s ‘Cool Japan’ strategy as they investigate Web3 usage.

Magazine: A Guide to Osaka, Japan’s second largest city.