Ripple’s local unit secured a full MPI license from the MAS to provide digital payment token services in Singapore.
- It was in June that Ripple received an in-principal approval in Singapore.
- In another victory for Ripple, the U.S. judge rejected the SEC’s motion to appeal its loss against Ripple Labs.
Ripple [XRP] obtained a full crypto asset license in Singapore on 3 October. The exchange informed that its Singapore subsidiary, Ripple Markets APAC Pte Ltd, secured a full Major Payments Institution (MPI) license from the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS). It can now provide digital payment token services in Singapore.
Brad Garlinghouse, Chief Executive Officer of Ripple, said,
Since establishing Singapore as our Asia Pacific headquarters in 2017, the country has been pivotal to Ripple’s global business.
It was in June that Ripple received an in-principal approval. Four months later, the firm has secured a full MPI license.
The statement read that 90% of Ripple’s business is outside of the U.S. The crypto firm will continue to prioritize the APAC for adoption of its crypto-backed products.
Singapore boasts more than 700 Web3 companies. It is a pivotal player in the growth of the crypto and Web3 economy in Asia and the world.
So far, the island nation has granted MPI licenses to 14 virtual asset firms. In fact, the MAS has granted an MPI license to a local subsidiary of the Swiss crypto bank Sygnum on the same day as Ripple.
A win on the legal front for Ripple
Ripple secured another win on 3 October as the judge presiding over its securities violations case in the U.S. denied the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) interlocutory appeal.
The judge ruled that the regulator failed to meet its burden to show that there were controlling questions of law or that there were substantial grounds for differences of opinion on the matter. The trial is scheduled for April 2024 to address the remaining issues on the matter.
In 2020, the SEC sued Ripple over securities violations. In July 2023, the judge ruled that the sale of Ripple’s XRP tokens on crypto exchanges and though programmatic sales did not constitute investment contracts; hence, it is not a security in this case.
However, the institutional sale of these tokens violated federal securities laws. Now, the court has denied the regulator’s interlocutory appeal.
Following the latest ruling, the price of XRP rose by as much as 6% to $0.545. At press time, it was trading at $0.52762.
