In his speech on 20 October at the Reuters NEXT conference, Singapore Exchange (SGX) CEO Loh Boon Chye said: ‘The environ[ment] for crypto tokens listed on SGX or any exchange is unfortunately not up to that support level today … At the moment, we don’t think we are ready to list.’ Loh was referring to the lack of a sustainable ecosystem to support crypto listings – one that includes sufficient supply and demand, adequate governance, and coherent structure. Crypto ETFs are taking off in the US and Asia. Major cryptocurrencies have surged this year. Yet in Singapore, the necessary conditions are apparently absent.
SGX’s small base of retail investors also makes it harder to lure high-growth company listings and keep the market liquid, but Loh remains upbeat, noting a healthy pipeline of IPO candidates, along with the potential for more secondary and dual listings that will help increase companies’ exposure, and hopefully improve the market as well.
Financially, SGX reported a 0.7 percent year-on-year decrease in net profit for the first half of its 2024 financial year, with 623 listed securities and a market value of S$792.93 billion, as at the end of June. In spite of current difficulties, and the moratorium on cryptocurrency products, SGX hopes to remain as a financial hub of innovation.
Source: Reuters
